To all COJ Clients,

Mayor Herman Mashaba has introduced a policy of zero tolerance when it comes to outstanding debt with the municipality.

You will note that the Due Date on your account is now 15 days instead of 30 days. If any amount, no matter how small, moves into 30 days City Power has been instructed to disconnect services. This is done without prior notice. A technician will arrive at your premises with the notice and instruction for him to disconnect. Reconnection will only be made 72 hours after payment for all outstanding money is made and received by COJ. Unfortunately EMC do not have the authority to stop a technician from disconnecting services once he is on site.

We therefore recommend that all COJ invoices are paid timeously to avoid this. Should there be an outstanding query on your account we further recommend that payment of current charges are paid on a monthly basis. COJ will not accept an outstanding query on an account as a reason for non-payment.

COJ do not necessarily release invoices the day they are billed, leaving customers with very little time to check and process payments before the due date. EMC are in the process of obtaining a meeting with the Municipal Manager to discuss this and ensure that all our clients receive their invoices timeously. This along with the fact of a client historically paying their invoice on a monthly basis are not taken into account by COJ when handing disconnection notices to City Power.