Gauteng High Court

The City of Tshwane’s daily payment to its erstwhile electricity smart meters contractor Peu Capital Partners has been drastically reduced from R4million to R1.8m. In addition, MMC for utility services Abel Tau said the municipality has covered ground towards the replacement of the almost 13 000 meters that had already been installed as part of the deal. The replacement of the meters comes after AfriBusiness succeeded in having the Peu irregular smart meter contract set aside in the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria. But Tau said the reduction of daily payments to Peu was the essence of what the City wanted residents to know about. “We have made a decision that would save the City a huge amount of money to ensure that we can take those savings and redirect them to service delivery,” he said. Regarding the sum of R4m previously paid to Peu, he said: “I checked last week and the amount has drastically dropped. I think we were at R1.8m” He said the City was making inr…

THE workers who protested outside the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, over what they perceived to be a delayed justice in their case with the City, were misinformed, municipal spokesperson Lindela Mashigo said. The out-of-work staff and subcontractors were bused in to the court to demand a speedy verdict. The court case concerns the validity of a tender between their employer, Moipone Group of Companies, and the City. The high court heard the case on September 21, but a verdict is still pending. The workers said they supported their employer, who took the City to the high court for refusing to pay for services rendered under a “valid and binding” contract. To showcase their frustrations, they marched from Marabastad to the high court, where they delivered a memorandum to acting court manager Lucky Makumule. The protesters said the City lacked the will to honour its contractual obligations and that had put them out of work since June. They were hoping for a favou…

The City of Tshwane is pulling the plug on smart meters contract with Peu

City of Tshwane: Workers who protested outside the Gauteng High Court are misinformed