The situation at the Middestad building, whose owner allegedly owes the Tshwane municipality about R10 million, is not about to change.
The Pretoria News has learnt that the company which owns the building, Roux Property Development Africa - which belongs to controversial property mogul Roux Shabangu - has reached a deadlock with the municipality on having services restored. According to information, the city is demanding at least R2m before it can consider reconnecting services.
But Shabangu’s company has allegedly said it cannot raise that amount.
The building has been without power since Monday.
The water in the building was cut on Tuesday afternoon. This infuriated businesses leasing space as they could not carry on with their business.
Roux Property Development Africa spokeswoman Percy Shabangu said they were in meetings yesterday trying to resolve the problem, but the municipality was not budging.
“We asked them if we could at least give them a monthly payment of R500 000 and have our electricity restored, but they refused.
“The situation is seriously frustrating for us because our tenants are losing business,” she said.
Tshwane spokeswoman Dikeledi Phiri confirmed last night that there was a meeting but the parties could not reach an agreement.
She said the city had told the company that before any reconnections would be done, it had to pay 60 percent of what was owed.
“What they suggested was against our credit control policy.
“We indicated to them that before we can make any arrangements for accounts, the account holder needs to pay about R2m.
“We were informed that they won’t be able to pay that amount,” she said.
Phiri said the municipality would not reconnect services until the company had paid the amount - a move that will leave the businesses leasing space in the building in the dark for more days and result in further losses. - Pretoria News