Pretoria – The Nigerian consulate in Joburg has condemned the “invasion” of its premises by City of Joburg’s power utility, City Power, to disconnect electricity at the diplomatic mission.
This week, City Power visited multiple premises around Joburg’s region E, disconnecting electricity to recoup more than R360 million it is owed by entities in the region.
The Nigerian diplomatic mission was visited on Wednesday. City Power told IOL that the consulate owed more than R400 000.
Following the visit, the Consulate General of Nigeria in South Africa issued a statement expressing displeasure, adding that the South African government had to investigate the conduct of the City of Joburg officials.
“The invasion squad, which comprised officials of the Johannesburg Metro Police Department (JMPD) and City Power, as well as members of the press, arrived at the consulate without prior notice or appointment and disrupted normal consular services,” the Consulate said.
“The consulate maintains that the action of the officials, no matter the justification, was in complete violation of extant international treaties and conventions, especially the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations 1963, which guarantees the inviolability of consular premises.”
The consulate said the actions have annoyed Lagos authorities.
“Consequently, the consulate-general has, through diplomatic channels, conveyed the displeasure of the federal government of Nigeria to the South African government, with a demand for thorough investigation to be conducted into the illegal violation of the premises of the consulate general…”
The Nigerian authorities are also demanding “appropriate remedial measures” to be taken to avoid a recurrence.
“Furthermore, the consulate wishes to express its regret to members of the public for the disruption to services caused by the invasion and hereby assures that normal consular services have been restored at the mission,” the statement concluded.
On Wednesday, City Power told IOL that despite being denied access to the Nigerian consulate in Illovo, it managed to disconnected the electricity supply to the diplomatic mission.
City Power’s 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.
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.
IOL