‘We don’t want free electricity’

INLSA

FRUSTRATED: Mary-Anne Simpson and her husband, John, have about 400 flats in Joburg and say that despite their best efforts, they cant pay their electricity costs because they council wont open an account for them. Picture: Antoine de Ras

‘PLEASE, City of Joburg, take the R1 million we owe you!” This is the plea of John and Mary-Anne Simpson, who own numerous properties in the city.

In this bizarre situation, the council is refusing to take money from the Simpsons, who have the money in an account and don’t know what to do with it.

It started when the couple installed prepaid meters in a block of flats in Yeoville.

But they did this through a private company, meaning that the money paid for electricity by the tenants goes to into their account each month. They, in turn, are supposed to pay it over to the council.

But here comes the snag. The council, not understanding that the meters are privately owned, is insisting that because the building has prepaid meters, it will not open an account for the Simpsons. “They just don’t understand that we have money that belongs to them,” Mary-Anne says.

“I am at my wits’ end with the council. The council continues to supply us with electricity. It does not have any idea of consumption.

“We do not want free electricity, but no matter what attempt we make, it is all futile… We try resending them mail regularly, but it is now being rejected by their internet protocols as spam. I do want to pay and we are accounting for it in our chart of accounts, but how do we go forward? With this in mind, it is no wonder that Joburg teeters on bankruptcy.”

Mary-Anne says it’s been a comedy of errors since she bought the building a few years ago.

She got a clearance certificate and then went to open an electricity account, but the council employees refused to open one unless the arrears of close to R1m were paid.

“They agreed that the clearance certificate that had been issued was indeed valid and the arrears were many years old and were not our responsibility.

“But still they insisted that until I paid, they would not open an account. I eventually managed to see a senior legal official who conceded that this arrears amount had nothing to do with me and that I was not liable. He said he would close the account, which he did.”

The Simpsons then tried to open a new account. After three visits to the “chaotic service centre in Braamfontein, where only one person was there to assist so 60 or 70 people and the computers were down”, she eventually got to the front of the line and was told that a new account could not be opened because this could be done only with the simultaneously closure of the old account. But, of course, the old account had already been closed.

“We went back to the legal department that had closed the account and the person who had assisted us previously said he could not help us… So we still have no account,” she said.

The couple say they are constantly “hounded” by legal call centres for outstanding money that they claim is due many years after they sold properties. “This despite all the accounts being up to date at the date of sale.”

The Simpsons own about 400 flats, and say they require an effective line of communication besides faxes, e-mails and hand-delivered letters that never get acknowledged, let alone read and dealt with.

The City of Joburg was asked for comment three weeks ago. Several reminders have been sent, but no response has been received.