{"id":857976,"date":"2026-04-22T09:05:19","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T07:05:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=857976"},"modified":"2026-04-22T09:05:22","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T07:05:22","slug":"city-of-tshwane-cuts-off-shopping-centre-over-unpaid-bills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/government\/857976\/city-of-tshwane-cuts-off-shopping-centre-over-unpaid-bills\/","title":{"rendered":"City of Tshwane cuts off shopping centre over unpaid bills"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The City of Tshwane shut down a shopping centre as part of its Tshwane Ya Tima revenue-collection campaign. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Monday, 20 April, Tshwane mayor Nasiphi Moya announced<\/a> that the city had disconnected services to Heracles Prime Property, which includes the Jean Village shopping centre in Centurion.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Moya, the property owner owes the municipality around R3 million in outstanding bills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The move forms part of a broader crackdown on unpaid municipal bills, with the city increasingly willing to act against both residential and commercial defaulters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The shutdown of Jean Village follows a similar action taken against another property in Akasia, which houses the Galpini Village apartments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In that case, the owner owed the city R718,000, prompting the Revenue Protection Unit to cut its electricity supply.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The municipality said the campaign is aimed at enforcing payment discipline across all categories of consumers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Tshwane Ya Tima revenue-collection campaign seeks to disconnect services to defaulting clients who run up high service bills and fail to pay the City,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The city added<\/a> that the initiative casts a wide net, targeting businesses, individual households, and residential estates alike.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFrom the 188 disconnection job cards issued by the City, mostly for residential households worth about R50 million, 70 accounts were immediately and successfully disconnected in various areas,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Authorities have also warned that the campaign goes beyond simple disconnections. \u201cAlong with the disconnections, the City also imposes steep fines for meter tampering and illegal connections,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It also added that the next phase will focus on roughly 1,500 high-end defaulters who collectively owe the municipality billions of rand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe City of Tshwane would like to thank residents who pay their accounts on time and in full,\u201d the city said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf customers are not able to pay their bills, they should come forward and make payment arrangements to avoid disconnection.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
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City of Tshwane cutting off power to the Jean Village shopping centre.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Effectiveness of Tshwane’s Ya Tima revenue-collection campaign questioned<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In her recent State of the Capital Address, Moya said the metro has prioritised restoring financial discipline, rebuilding credible budgets, and strengthening internal controls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She pointed to the adoption of a fully funded budget for the 2025\/26 financial year\u2014the first since 2021\/22\u2014which has been validated by National Treasury.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Revenue collection efforts, including the Tshwane Ya Tima campaign, have been coupled with improvements in billing accuracy and attempts to rebuild trust with residents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Moya, these interventions are starting to show results. Cash-backed reserves have grown significantly, rising from R835 million to over R1.9 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is also projected to reach R2.86 billion by the end of the 2025\/26 financial year. The city\u2019s current ratio is also improving and is expected to reach 0.86.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She further noted that total debt, including obligations to Eskom, has been reduced from R6.66 billion in October 2024 to approximately R4.73 billion by the end of March 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe are honouring our commitments, paying service providers more efficiently, and restoring confidence in the city\u2019s financial credibility,\u201d Moya said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The mayor also noted that the city has implemented cost-cutting measures, including a sharp reduction in outsourced services such as water tankers and security.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese savings are being redirected into infrastructure, maintenance and building a capable state,\u201d Moya said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the campaign has drawn criticism from opposition parties. The Democratic Alliance argued<\/a> that the city\u2019s overall performance has been dismal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSince 2024, revenue collection in Tshwane has dropped from 93% of billings to 83%. The Tshwane ya Tima campaign has been ineffective at redressing the situation,\u201d the party said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The DA also questioned the credibility of the city\u2019s budgeting assumptions and argued that they rely on overly optimistic revenue targets and income streams that may not materialise. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cMoya\u2019s assumption that Tshwane has a funded budget is based on a 93% revenue collection goal, which has not been reached, and income from a City Cleansing Levy, which a court of law has set aside,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The City of Tshwane shut down a shopping centre as part of its Tshwane Ya Tima revenue-collection campaign.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":92,"featured_media":857980,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[17553,853],"class_list":["post-857976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-city-of-thswane","tag-south-africa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/92"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=857976"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857976\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":858001,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/857976\/revisions\/858001"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/857980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=857976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=857976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=857976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}