Several subcontractors who offer maintenance service for street lights, audits and disconnection service for City Power are furious following a delay in payment.
They charge that they have not been paid for the past three months, and put the blame squarely at the door of the City of Johannesburg.
City Power allegedly made selective payments in the past three months, and scrapped the rest of the subcontracting companies from its payroll.
One of the subcontractors, who chose to remain anonymous for fear of victimisation, told Sunday World this week: “They pay contractors that they like, and we fear to confront City Power because if we are seen laying a complaint, it will cost us qualifying for the next project. The workers have been staging a silent protest outside the gates of City Power for the past three months.”
On Wednesday, when they enquired about delayed payments, the main subcontractors were told that City Power does not have the money to pay them.
They said they have now resorted to applying for loans in order to keep their businesses afloat and to pay salaries for staff.
One of the subcontractors said he was even called by the child of one of his employees saying: “I go to school barefoot because you have not paid my dad for three months.”
Another worker shared: “This hurts because I don’t even have the money to buy a necessity like bread for my children, and yet I am a breadwinner. We borrow money from neighbours just to get to work.
“My friends avoid my calls because they already know that I will ask for assistance. We try to keep the momentum, but we do not look forward to going back home to empty cupboards. We feel like the City does not care, as long as they benefit from the service that we provide.”
City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena said the entity is aware of the situation and is working to address the challenges.
“We are working on the challenges with regards to the payment of the contractors. As City Power, we have an impeccable record with regards to payments, where even our financials will show that we do pay our contractors in the required time of 30 days,” said Mangena.
“However, with regards to the current challenge, we get money as an allocation from the City of Joburg. Given the current situation, the financial allocations are a bit restricted, and it affects our contractors, among others.
“We are in an engagement with COJ [City of Johannesburg] to prioritise our service providers, who are at the coal face of service delivery and who we hold in high regard. We do acknowledge, however, that there is a problem, and we are in engagements with our contractors where we update them on the progress.”
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