Sharika Regchand
Cellulr phone networks operating in Pietermaritzburg are going to be allowed to open service accounts for their supply of electricity from the municipality, to prevent network interruptions caused by disconnections when landlords default on payments.
The council’s executive committee yesterday approved a deviation from the credit control policy – which was finalised and implemented last year – to allow network companies to have their own accounts with the city.
Moses Ngobese, the city’ s consolidated billing manager, said in terms of the policy, municipal statements were normally posted to the property owner who forwarded them to the consumer.
The network companies had cellular base stations in the city, on property which they rented from residents or businesses.
To them, a deviation of this policy would ensure there was no delay in receiving the statements because they would be directed to them rather than the property owners.
He added that payments to the municipality would improve and that there would be a reduction in the monthly debtors’ list.
There would be no network interruptions as a result of disconnections because of unpaid accounts.
He said each network company would have to finance the costs of ensuring the landlord’ s supply was disconnected from its own.
Ngobese said that Vodacom, MTN, Cell C and other networks had applied for direct electricity supply from their rented properties because of electricity disconnections due to accounts not being paid on time.
Vodacom’s KwaZulu-Natal property manager, Brett Rheeders, and MTN’s property manager, Francois Sanson, had written to the municipality about the policy last year. Their letters came before the council yesterday.
Both property managers shared similar views.
In his letter, Rheeders said: “The unfortunate situation could arise that the leasing relationship between Vodacom and the property owner will be damaged beyond repair, due to a default by the property owner, resulting in a Vodacom base station being disconnected and vice versa.”
He said that because information and communication technology could be considered an essential service, Vodacom should be treated as an essential service provider.
“In cases of emergency, the only mode of communication is cellular, which is just one example of the essential nature of our service, thus justifying the acknowledgement of cellular service as an essential service,” said Rheeders.