Residents' Commissions from Maputo condominiums have pledged to take legal action to stop the publicly-owned electricity company, EDM, from carrying out its threat to cut off power supply to those blocks of flats where the residents' commissions have not signed contracts with EDM.
The dispute concerns the "common spaces" within the condominium - that is, the corridors, the stairways, the lifts, and, perhaps most crucial of all, the water pumps.
This used to be no problem at all. After the nationalisation of rented housing in 1976, it was the state housing body, APIE, that took responsibility for these "common spaces", including paying the electricity bills. The tenants only paid for the electricity used in their own flats.
But over the past decade the state has been pulling out of housing, and most of the flats have been sold to their tenants.
APIE says it can no longer pay the bill for the common spaces, and EDM is not prepared to give away its electricity.
EDM has thus demanded that the Residents' Commission take responsibility for collecting the money from all the people living in any given block, and sign a contract with EDM. This has happened very suddenly - on 31 May APIE announced that it would take no responsibility for the electricity and water bills for the "common spaces", and immediately EDM gave the residents' commissions the deadline of 15 June to sign contracts.
At a Thursday press conference, the Maputo City Association of Residents' Commissions (ACMCM), which represents people living in 77 condominiums, said it was hiring a lawyer to take court action to stop EDM's plans.
Carolina Meneses, chairperson of the ACMCM, declared "this has to be stopped to give us time to find a real consensus".
"We want a dialogue with EDM, with the water company, with the Ministry of Public Works, and with APIE itself, so that we can put things on the table, study the situation, and not do things in a rush", she said.
The main problem raised by the Residents' Commissions is how to oblige all residents to pay their fair share of the electricity bills for the "common spaces". In large blocks of flats, where lifts are in constant use, and where water must be pumped to a height of fifteen storeys or more, these monthly bills will be substantial.
The obvious solution would be for EDM to divide the electricity bill by the number of flats in the building, and add it to the bill for each individual flat. Yet EDM claims that this simple solution is "not viable".
The Residents' Commissions have no legal power to force residents to pay their share. They fear that if there is no legal pressure on those who do not wish to pay, some residents will end up subsidising others.
"We who want to pay do not have the money to pay for the consumption of those who refuse to pay", said Meneses.
She pointed out that the problem is not new. Discussions on how to deal with it have been going on sporadically since 1999.
"At no time did we refuse to pay the bills", said Meneses. "But after all this time, now they give us an ultimatum of 15 days.
What we want is a legal instrument that would force all residents to pay. That's the role of the government, and it cannot wriggle out of it".
She noted that some commissions had already, under duress, signed contracts with EDM. This was the case in a few blocks where EDM had already cut off the power supply.
But she stressed that the commissions represented in the ACMCM would not sign contracts while the problem of residents who refuse to pay was not solved.
Meneses warned that, if the power to the "common spaces" is cut off, then dozens of apartment blocks will be deprived of water supply, and in the absence of lighting on the stairs, will become thoroughly unsafe.
One peculiarity of the moves by APIE and EDM is that they only apply to Maputo. Yet there are apartment blocks in exactly the same situation in every other major Mozambican city. Why had only the residents of Maputo condominiums been singled out for this treatment, asked Meneses.
In addition to its attempt to secure a court order to stop EDM, the ACMCM is seeking a meeting with the mayor of Maputo, Eneas Comiche (although he has not yet replied to the letters the ACMCM has sent).
The ACMCM also promises to send an open letter to the country's parliament, the Assembly of the Republic, to President Joaquim Chissano, and to several ministers.
Fonte: AIM
