Tuesday, February 13, 2024 – The Eastern Cape Division of the High Court has ordered the Inxuba Yethemba Local Municipality to reconnect the electricity of a Cradock businessman at his house and businesses.
Ben Schenk is among hundreds of householders who were
included in the Inxuba Yethemba Local Municipality’s electricity disconnection
“spree” that started last week but Schenk said his rates accounts were paid and
up to date.
“When my wife went to enquire about the reason for them
blocking our prepaid meter, they created a new rates and taxes account. It
wasn’t even printed as an account; it was just numbers printed on blank paper,”
he said.
“The account shows nothing is owed and then suddenly the
total shows me I owe more than R100,000.”
Schenk, on the other hand, said he was owed more than
R100,000 for work he had done for the municipality.
On Friday, 9 February, he went to court. Two of his tenants
are funeral parlours that were in a race against time to keep the bodies in
their care “unaffected” by the disconnection spree. The Eastern Division of the
High Court in Makhanda ordered the immediate reconnection of Schenk’s
properties.
Judge Thandi Norman ordered the Inxuba Yethemba Local
Municipality to act “in accordance with [its] debt collection by-law”, and
reconnect the electricity at some of Schenk’s properties and unblock his
prepaid meters at others.
She also ordered the municipality to start sending out
monthly invoices to Schenk. It was a provisional order, but parts of it came
into immediate effect. The municipality will have an opportunity to oppose it.
By Monday, 12 February, the municipality had not complied
with the urgent parts of the order that were supposed to be carried out with
immediate effect.
“They said I must pay and then they will pay me back, but I
know I will never get my money back,” Schenk said.
“We are going back to Makhanda now,” Schenk said
on Monday. “We want them to be held in contempt of court.”
The Sheriff had served the order on the
municipality and the municipal manager, and, according to legal documentation,
said that “they will discuss [the matter] with their attorneys immediately”.
Schenk’s legal team was then told that the staff
that must unblock his electricity were in East London “talking to the municipal
attorneys” about the court order.
Just before 9pm on Monday, protesters, still
angry about the continuous electricity problems in Cradock and Middelburg, had
closed the N10, a major road in the Eastern Cape, with rocks and tyres.
Witnesses on the scene said they were protesting over the ongoing blocking of
their prepaid electricity meters.
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