The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Johannesburg will probe why the City of Johannesburg (CoJ) continues to default on payments to City Power, allegedly leading to City Power’s inability to pay its contractors on time.
Contractors responsible for conducting work on Johannesburg’s electricity infrastructure have today announced that they will down their tools, until they are paid what they are owed.
Contractors claim that they are owed millions.
That is the type of money that keep salaries paid, equipment stocked and ultimately the lights of Johannesburg on. The City seemingly does not understand this, or simply does not care.
The DA has previously revealed that City Power confirmed that the CoJ owes City Power R2 billion in terms of short payments, and to top it off, the City has not even given City Power a reason for this severe shortfall.
Now, the DA will submit Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) requests to both the City of Johannesburg, and City Power. On the one end, to determine why there is such a hold up in payments, and on the other to determine how many contractors are owed exactly how much.
This continuous failure of Johannesburg and its entities only has one victim – residents of the City. The DA will not stand by and watch as our lights go off.