You may be up to date with your lights and water bill, but if you owe the municipality rates you may still find your electricity cut off.
You may be up to date with your lights and water bill, but if you owe the municipality rates you may still find your electricity cut off.
That's the warning from the municipality as it struggles to collect around R200 million owed to Makana. Edward Ganza, who at the time was still the municipality's acting spokesman, told Grocott's Mail last week that they were making progress in collecting outstanding debt.
According to a recent report from the acting chief financial officer, residents owe the municipality a staggering R151.6 million, of which R91.7m is rates arrears. Local businesses owe the municipality R33.8m of which R6m is rates.
Both groups, as well as provincial government departments with Makana-based offices stand to have their electricity cut off unless they cough up, Ganza warned. The exception would be government-funded departments providing essential services, such as certain health facilities.
Provincial government departments owe R 5.5m in rates, water and electricity, refuse and sewage. Ganza was commenting on a report tabled in an agenda for a Finance Administration Monitoring and Evaluation Portfolio Committee meeting scheduled for 10 August.
Ganza insisted the municipality was making progress, however, having collected more than R1.5 million in credit control procedures, compared to May's R862 269.60 collection rate. We have made arrangements with the top 20 business that have outstanding debts, and they pay a percentage and we reconnect them. But that amount of R33 million would have increased because it was from June.
"Those who do not honour their arrangement with us to pay, we disconnect them," Ganza said. He said this would go for householders as well. Even if a person's lights and water bill was up to date, if they owed money for rates their electricity would be disconnected.
The municipality meets in a forum with representatives from various government departments to exchange information and set deadlines for the payment of outstanding debts. Councillors (R56 500) and municipal officials (R928 670) are also in the red.
"With the councillors and municipal staff we deduct the amounts they owe from their salaries," Ganza said. The councillors have been very cooperative in paying after they made arrangements.
The staff were given a deadline of May but those who did not pay, the money had to be deducted at the end of August from their salaries. Ganza said government departments had also been paying well, following Premier Noxolo Kiviet's ultimatum for all departments owing municipalities to pay outstanding debts before the end of September.
He said although some government-funded health facilities owed the municipality, they did not cut off their electricity, because they rendered essential services to the public.
