Joburg wins right to cut power to illegally connected Hillbrow flats

The high court in Johannesburg has ruled it cannot compel the City of Johannesburg to continue to supply electricity to a block of flats in Hillbrow that has for years been illegally connected to the grid. 

The property owner of the block housing 208 tenants, 39 Van der Merwe Street Hillbrow CC, brought a court application in July after the city’s disconnection of power supply to the building. 

The disconnection occurred because the municipality discovered there was an alleged illegal electricity connection at the property. The property owner denied there was such a connection. But the municipality insisted there were illegal connections.

The property owner then asked the court to order that electricity be temporarily reconnected until the outcome of a case it intended to institute. The court said the legal action will attend to the dispute regarding an illegal connection from the property to the municipal grid. 

In its judgment, passed on August 23, the court said it should not encourage a breakdown in the rule of law, which it would be doing if it were to overlook the conduct of the property owner  and compel the municipality and City Power to provide electricity. 

The city said that for more than a decade it has been locked in a legal battle with the Hillbrow property, beginning in 2012, over disputed electricity payments.

“The property had over the years sought court orders to prevent the city from disconnecting the electricity supply. The city contends the property owes more than R2.9m, which has accumulated over the years because of short payments to the city,” said the city’s director of communications and stakeholder management Kgamanyane Maphologela.   

In its judgment, the court found the property had consumed electricity illegally and had been underpaying the city for the supply. 

The property owner’s evidence submitted before the court showed it missed a lot of monthly payments. In one of the months, its records revealed it paid as little as R1,948 for electricity for the entire block of flats. 

The court said the property owner could not explain how the 208 tenants could have consumed less than R15 worth of electricity every month over the years. 

“Even if we assume that the 208 tenants constitute the total number of people living in the building — a completely unrealistic assumption given that it is a large building consisting of many flats and the tenancy relates to the flat not the persons occupying the flat — it would mean the average monthly electricity consumption of each person costs a paltry R14.74 according to the respondent’s records, and R15.01 according to the applicant’s records,” said judge Bashier Vally. 

Vally said in either version, the amount of electricity consumed by the occupants of the building was wholly unrealistic.

“This evidence demonstrates the [municipality’s] claim that an illegal connection was discovered at the property is certainly not far-fetched or unrealistic,” Vally said. 

Based on the figures provided, the court agreed with the municipality that the electricity meter had been tampered with. The court said having discovered the illegal connection, the municipality was not obliged to supply the property with electricity. 

Vally said the property owner was entitled to launch its intended action proceedings. He said in the meantime, should the property owner seek to purchase electricity from the municipality, it should conclude a mutually acceptable agreement with it.

“The city is pleased with the judgment, as the city has noticed that over the years many defaulters were often ready to run to the courts to interdict the city from cutting off their services.” 

Maphologela said a lot of debt owed to the city was due to illegal connection of services by businesses, residents and big organisations, which needs to be recovered. He said the municipality’s debtor’s book was sitting at close to R48bn for rates and taxes, sewage, electricity and water, which is unsustainable.   

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