Johannesburg - A mattress business in the south of Johannesburg has allegedly been using electricity for free since 2015 and racked up a bill of R20 million.
This was one of the businesses the City of Joburg identified when it went on a disconnecting spree on Tuesday, looking for water and electricity thieves and then handing them pre-termination notices.
Mayor Herman Mashaba and his officials went on a raid that was part of operation Buya Mthetho,looking for people who did not adhere to by-laws governing the use of water and electricity as well as building approvals before commencing with construction.
Mashaba said he won't let the city continue to be robbed of its money.
Mayor @HermanMashaba gives the chairman of the Body Corporate a compliance certificate that the area will be cut off from #CityServices. #BuyaMthetho^LM pic.twitter.com/ZntLUqfOPD
— City of Joburg (@CityofJoburgZA) February 12, 2019
Mashaba said the mattress business, situated in Ormonde near Gold Reef City, had not been paying for electricity since 2015.
"It's one of the businesses the city had identified for not paying for electricity services. We worked out how much they over and we are here to deliver the invoice of over R20m."
In one instance, the team went to a construction site in Bergbron, Roodepoort, where they found construction still in progress.
According to the team, the contractor had not presented the city with the building plan for approval and an application for electricity had also not been done.
The city gave the business seven days to settle the account. If that has not been done in seven days, the city said it will open a case against the business.
Regent Park Retirement Village in Roodepoort was also found to have been illegally connected to the city's services despite the contractor not having submitted building plans to the city.