/ 30 July 1999

Creative billing in Thokoza

Scotch Tagwireyi

Lucky Ndlovu fled Thokoza township when his wife and two children were killed in the political violence that engulfed the East Rand in the early Nineties.

Hostel dwellers forced him out of his house, invaded it and later destroyed it.

Eighteen months ago Ndlovu returned to the charred ruins – only to find himself facing a R135 700 bill.

The Alberton town council is charging him R100 505 for services the illegal occupants of his house ran up, plus R35 194 it says he has incurred in repairs since his return, even though the house has not been repaired.

Ndlovu is among hundreds of Thokoza residents involved in a dispute over payment for services with the Alberton council and the office of the Gauteng MEC for Development Planning and Local Government, Trevor Fowler.

Residents have united to form the Displacees Committee, to represent them against “the injustices” of the city council.

Alberton council claims Thokoza residents owe more than R12-million. It says it has spend more than R70 000 on cutting electric cables to the township to stop illegal consumption of electricity.

The residents are demanding that the arrears be scrapped, but the council insists the arrears should be paid and put into a holding account.

A commission of inquiry, headed by the mayor of Boksburg Eric Xayiya, was set up to investigate the dispute.

It has recommended that arrears up to March 1999 be suspended while discussions continue.

While residents have welcomed the recommendations, they appear to have been rejected by the town council.

Fowler’s representative says the Xayiya commission’s recommendations will be binding on all parties. But, he says, the MEC has not had a chance to look at the council’s response.

The two sides in the dispute cannot even agree on how many families were displaced during the political violence.

The council says 714 families were displaced and about 680 of them have returned to their homes.

But the Displacees Committee claims that the number of displaced families is closer to 3 000.