There has been an increase in illegal disconnections by City Power and Joburg Water. The city’s by-laws state that they are not allowed to disconnect if:
1) there is an open reference number/query on the account
2) you are continuing to pay monthly fair usage while the issue is being resolved
3) pre-termination notice has to have been issued to the property.
These Illegal disconnections usually happen on a Friday when there is pressure to keep the water and lights on for the weekend. JPOMA has also found that these usually come with requests for bribes. Please note that JPOMA does not support the payment of bribes to anyone! If you are in a situation where you have been asked for a bribe, please gather as much information as possible and send it to Angela Rivers angela@jpoma.co.za to escalate to the MMC for Finance. Corruption is high on her priority list.
JPOMA recommends members do the following if faced with an illegal disconnection:
1) Interrogate the City’s contractor who is doing the illegal disconnection. Ask to see IDs, copies of the pre-termination notice and how they were delivered, copies of the disconnection card, name of the supervisor. In the past, this usually send them away, especially if they are after a bribe.
2) contact angela@jpoma.co.za immediately, with the account number, reference numbers and whatever information you have gathered above.
3) If the disconnection notice has anything to do with either JPOMA’s refuse or sewer class action, our attorneys will also write a letter, that will be added to our body of evidence.
It is important to note that when you receive a pre-termination notice on your account immediately log a call with CoJ or call to find out if your reference number has been closed.