By Thapelo Molefe
A public spat has erupted between the City of Tshwane and the Department of Correctional Services (DCS) after a failed attempt by municipal officials to disconnect electricity at Kgosi Mampuru II Correctional Centre, with both sides trading sharply different versions of events.
The confrontation follows a social media post by Tshwane Executive Mayor Nasiphi Moya earlier on Friday, in which she announced that city officials were at the Pretoria correctional facility as part of the municipality’s revenue collection drive, #TshwaneYaTima.
“We are at Kgosi Mampuru Correctional Facility for #TshwaneYaTima. The prison owes the city close to R8 million for utilities,” Moya posted.
Hours later, the Department of Correctional Services issued a strongly worded statement accusing the city of attempting to disconnect electricity based on an incorrect account statement and of failing to verify facts before taking action at a critical national facility.
DCS said city officials arrived at the prison “armed with an incorrect account statement” and were forced to withdraw after Correctional Services managers pointed out the error. No electricity disconnection took place.
“It is not only disturbing but deeply humiliating that the executive mayor once again chose to make public pronouncements via social media… without ensuring that the facts were verified,” the department said, describing the incident as a demonstration of a lack of due diligence within the City of Tshwane.
The department further questioned the city’s administrative processes, saying the apparent eagerness to disconnect power at a correctional facility raised concerns about how billing information is verified before drastic action is taken.
Following the DCS statement, Moya returned to social media, striking a defiant tone and framing the operation as a success. In a second post, she said the city had targeted government debt as part of a broader revenue recovery campaign.
“We held a successful #TshwaneYaTima operation today chasing government debt owed to the City of Tshwane. We had job cards valued at over R45 million. We are owed over R2 billion by government departments (national and provincial),” Moya wrote.
She added that the campaign was aimed at raising revenue to fund service delivery programmes and insisted that “no one is above the law in Tshwane”.
While Moya did not directly address DCS’s claim that the account statement was incorrect, the department has called on the mayor to publicly correct what it described as misinformation and to apologise to Correctional Services and the public.
DCS also accused the City of Tshwane of repeatedly singling out the department on “incorrect grounds”, creating the impression of a deliberate attempt to discredit Correctional Services.
It warned that correctional facilities, as critical state institutions responsible for public safety and national security, should not be subjected to reckless public statements or administrative missteps.
By the time of publication, the City of Tshwane had not issued a formal response addressing the specific allegation that the attempted disconnection was based on an incorrect account.
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