Pretoria - Despite being denied access to the Nigerian consulate in Illovo, City of Joburg’s power utility City Power, accompanied by the Joburg Metro Police Department, disconnected the electricity supply to the diplomatic mission on Wednesday.
Speaking to IOL on Wednesday night, City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena said the Nigerian consul-general later visited City Power’s offices and made arrangements to settle the bill by the end of January.
“The consul-general visited our Service Delivery Centre in Alexandra, and agreed to pay the deposit, with the rest to be paid by the end of the month,” said Mangena.
“The same with The Catalyst Hotel, even though we realised that the hotel had lodged some queries on the debt, which we will be attending to. However, they paid R400 000 and were reconnected and we will proceed to address their query.”
By Wednesday night, Mangena said electricity had also been restored to the Nigerian consulate.
“Power was restored late afternoon, after the arrangement was made. They owed over R400 000, and they put up a R150 000 deposit,” said Mangena.
He said the Catalyst Hotel owed the city R2.3 million.
Over the past three days, churches and other business have been on the receiving end of City Power’s drive to disconnect electricity to customers whose municipal accounts are in arrears.
In November, City Power disconnected its services to a block of flats in Hillbrow. The building owes more than R5m to the city.
The utility had tried to cut off the electricity in the previous week, but angry residents had thrown rocks and other objects at the city’s technicians.
IOL