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Reports out of South Africa revealed that the Nigerian consulate in Johannesburg has had the electricity supply to its facilities cut off due to the huge electricity bill owed by the diplomatic mission.
Although the date of the incident was not stated, it was gathered that the City Power company resolved to disconnect the consulate after it failed to clear up the bill as earlier promised.
The company said the Nigerian consul-general had visited its Service Delivery Centre in Alexandra sometime last year and pledged to pay the electricity debt in installments.
But, having reneged on its promise coupled with its unwillingness to grant access to the consulate, the Johannesburg City Power heads were forced to visit the facility with a team from the Metro Police Department to effect the disconnection.
The City Power spokesperson, Isaac Mangena, was quoted by a local online platform, IOL, on Wednesday as saying, “The Nigerian consulate-general has been defaulting since last year but they promised to clear up the bill by January after the disconnection.
“The consul-general visited our Service Delivery Centre in Alexandra, and agreed to pay the deposit, with the rest to be paid by the end of the month."
“The same with The Catalyst Hotel, even though we realised that the hotel had lodged some queries on the debt, which we will be attending to. However, they paid R400, 000 and were reconnected and we will proceed to address their query.”
“Power was restored late afternoon after the arrangement was made. They owed over R400, 000, and they put up a R150,000 deposit,” Mangena added.
The Punch reports that the South African power company has been cracking down on debtors for the past three days some of which were churches and businesses whose municipal accounts are in arrears.
The paper also said its efforts to get the Nigerian consulate's comment on the development were unsuccessful.