WeeklySA_AdminBribe: Applicants must declare who tampered with the services and the amount of bribe paid
By Monk Nkomo
Residents in the City of Tshwane who had been paying less for the consumption of water and electricity due to illegal connections to these services, have been given until Monday next week, March 31, to apply for amnesty by, amongst others, declaring payments of bribes and the names of the people responsible for the illegal connections.
The City of Tshwane municipality issued notices inviting residents implicated in the illegal connection of electricity and water meters to apply for amnesty to avoid legal action. The municipality reserved the right to grant and withdraw amnesty in case of non-compliance with the conditions set out.
The purpose of the amnesty period is to assist residents and business owners who were guilty of :
• Illegally connecting to the electricity and or water networks and benefiting from these services ;
• Paying a bribe to have an electricity or water meter bypassed to record incorrect or lower consumption
• Tampering with electricity and or water meter resulting in the measuring of incorrect or lower consumption.
• Illegally reconnecting an electricity and or water meter after a credit control disconnection
• Paying a bribe to remove an outstanding amount on an account or paying a bribe to illegally open a new municipal account without following the official process.
To qualify for amnesty, implicated residents are requested to submit an application form and an affidavit detailing the following :
* How the tampering and or illegal connection was installed;
* Who the individual (s) are who facilitated the tampering, illegal connection and or fraud on the account;
* How and to whom money was paid to facilitate the tampering, illegal connection and or fraud on the account;
* The amount paid and how frequently the bribe money was paid – monthly or once-off.
‘’ Amnesty will be subject to the condition that the same or similar offence is not committed within a period of five years’’, the municipality said.
In declaring to obtain amnesty for unauthorized access to municipal services, the applicant must agree that the City of Tshwane municipality reserved the right to charge a fee for any wrongful action conducted in contravention of the applicable laws.
The applicant must also declare that he or she would conduct the account in line with the policies and by laws of the municipality and would escalate any queries they may have with their accounts to the council’s customer care walk-in centres.
‘’Should the City of Tshwane find that I have illegally connected to the electricity mains and or water network or have unauthorized access to the City of Tshwane’s electricity and or water network, the Council shall charge me a fee in line with the approved City of Tshwane electricity and water tariffs as approved by Council.’’
The Council stated that granting amnesty was in no way condoning the wrongdoing or abdication of its right to charge a fee or to collect the debt owed by the applicant.
A number of residents who went to collect the application forms from the Atteridgeville municipal offices for amnesty said although they desperately sought the amnesty, the conditions put them in a rather difficult situation especially when they had to identify those who helped with the illegal connections.
‘’ It is a very tricky situation which is going to turn me into a sell-out’’, said one of the residents who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Another resident asked the Council to remove some of the strict conditions. ‘’ They are now making us spies. We acknowledge the mistake but now the municipality wants to hang us and those who helped us with the illegal connections. They must just grant us the amnesty and forget why and who did this for us.’’
