By Alex Patrick.
The sheriff of the court is outside City of Johannesburg city manager Floyd Brink’s Helderkruin home to enforce a warrant of arrest after the City failed to comply with a court order interdicting it from disconnecting utilities.
According to a well-placed source, the sheriff arrived outside the property in Roodepoort on Wednesday morning to enforce the warrant. Brink is believed to have already reached out to his legal team.
The source said 13 unmarked vehicles prevented the sheriff from enforcing the order.
“The vehicles came in an entourage pushing up against us saying we can’t enforce the warrant because it says ‘Blink’, a typo for Brink,” the source said.
The arrest is expected to be effected after the spelling mistake is corrected.
The debacle comes after Pibir Investments, an electrical import business, flagged a query with the City after its water bill went from R17 565.11 in December 2021 to R138 775.72 in January 2022.
The court order
On 15 August 2023, Acting Judge Yasmin Carrim ordered that the City and Johannesburg Water should not disconnect the property, pending the outcome of an application to have the water bill corrected.
The order included the reversal of the water levy and sewage charges and the correction of the statement to match the property’s functioning water meter.
Carrim further ordered that the city and Johannesburg Water were prohibited from any actions involving terminating or restricting business services or any more legal proceedings.
But, two days later, Johannesburg Water and the Johannesburg Metro Police Department arrived at the business and disconnected the water supply.
Birch said it took 10 days for the water to be reconnected and he headed back to court to have the City held in contempt.
In February, Judge Leonard Twala in the Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg ordered that Brink should be imprisoned for 30 days, which was suspended for a year on condition that neither the City nor Johannesburg Water be found in contempt.
The city was meant to fix the billing issue. However, according to Pibir director Crispin Birch, the company account was credited but the City did not come to the party.
Birch said he had to approach the High Court again on Monday to have the warrant enforced because police would not do so.