The City of Tshwane on Tuesday embarked on a project to retrieve accumulated debt of R16 million in Copperleaf Golf Estate, Pretoria. According to the municipality, the project titled “Amnesty Project” will continue throughout the month. “It’s Tshwane tee off time today. #CoTRevenueCollection team disconnecting at one of the City’s posh golf estates. Some households have been by-passing their meters and owe the City thousands of rands for services rendered. #AmnestyProgramme,” the City tweeted on its official Twitter account.

Last week, Eskom said it had commenced the process of disconnecting the capital’s power over its outstanding R1.17 billion bill line with the Intergovernmental Relations Framework Act (IRFA). The City threatened the power giant with legal action and stated that should this happen, it would interdict Eskom from proceeding. “As communicated previously, due to the liquidity challenges of the City, we do not have access to reserve funds or short-term loan funding to bridge the cash deficit we are experiencing.” “It remains important that we increase our revenue-collection levels to resolve the liquidity problem in the City. We, therefore, appeal to residents, businesses and other clients to pay their municipal accounts on time so that the City can be able to pay creditors like Eskom,” said MMC of Finance, Peter Sutton.