A Zululand municipality, owed more than R10m, has pulled the plug on magistrates’ courts and other government buildings.
|||Durban - A Zululand municipality, owed more than R10 million by the Department of Public Works, pulled the plug on magistrates’ courts and other government buildings this week.
The City of uMhlathuze municipality administers Richards Bay and Empangeni, as well as the smaller settlements of Enseleni, eSikhawini, Felixton, Ngwelezane and Vulindlela. Buildings in all these areas were targeted for disconnection.
In an operation which started on Wednesday and continued on Thursday, power to buildings used by the departments of justice, home affairs, labour and education was turned off. Even a block of flats occupied by public servants was left without electricity.
The Department of Public Works owns buildings used by government departments, and is responsible for settling bills associated with them.
The chief city accountant: credit control, Francois Cornelius, accompanied by municipal electrician Richard Fakude, arrived at the buildings, showed the authorisation notices, and cut off the power at distribution boxes.
The action was also backed by a council resolution.
Hearings came to a halt as the magistrates’ courts in Richards Bay, Empangeni and Ngwelezane were plunged into darkness on Wednesday morning. Power had only been restored in time for work on Thursday. Meanwhile, urgent cases, such as bail applications, were dealt with using battery-powered equipment.
Power was restored to all buildings after the Department of Public Works’ national and regional departments held crisis management meetings with the municipality.
The municipality’s chief communications officer, Vukile Mathabela, said yesterday they were reconnected after Public Works gave an undertaking it would pay their outstanding bills within five days.
Police stations at Empangeni, Richards Bay, Ngwelezane, eSikhawini and Vulindlela had also been on the list of disconnections.
Richards Bay police spokeswoman Debbie Ferreira said the municipal officials had arrived at the police station on Wednesday to disconnect the power, but had been denied access by acting station commander Col Francois Erasmus, who had been threatened with arrest.
He refused on the grounds that the police station switchboard would not be able to take emergency calls without a power supply, and the mortuary’s cooling system would be switched off.
“To date, no charge has been lodged against Col Erasmus,” said Ferreira.
“We had to be reasonable with police stations; it is an emergency service,” said Mathabela. He said Public Works had adequate notice of the disconnections.
A notice was placed in the local newspaper on 20 June, advising everyone in arrears that power would be cut if they did not settle their accounts within 14 days. Letters were also delivered to each debtor.
Daily News