The City of Tshwane has announced that residents, businesses and government departments who owe the municipality money must either pay their bills or risk cut-offs.
This is part of the city’s aggressive drive to collect about R6bn in six months to boost its revenues and ailing finances. Mayor Cilliers Brink said the metro has a R23.3bn debtors’ book that it aims to turn into cash to boost service delivery.
Among the defaulters are businesses and government departments who in the past had to be switched off for nonpayment during the “Tshwane Ya Tima” revenue collection campaign.
This campaign is now back in full swing and the city says it will target about 1,500 high-and defaulting consumers who owe the metro billions of rand. Residential households are very much part of the mix of defaulters.
It is understandable why the Tshwane metro has adopted this hard-line stance as most municipalities are struggling to sustain service delivery because of lack of resources.
In Tshwane, for example, the municipality has been beset by several service delivery failures including refuse collection and infrastructure maintenance, such as upgrading waste water treatment plants.
While these may partly be because the metro does not have enough resources owing to lower revenues collected from ratepayers, they are also an indicator of administrative dysfunction.
Therefore, the municipality needs to adopt an equally hardline stance in holding those who have contributed to its current state to account. We encourage residents who have not been paying their bills to do so to ensure the sustainability of all our municipalities.
But we would also encourage the City of Tshwane, for example, to be considerate in their debt-collection campaign, especially towards those who are willing to pay but find their finances stretched.
We believe those ratepayers who promise to honour their debt must be accommodated with an arrangement without stretching their budgets beyond limit. This is not only a humane thing to do but will ensure that those who owe continue to have water and electricity in their homes and are not cut off to add to their woes.
SOWETAN | Tshwane must show compassion
Image: ANTONIO MUCHAVE
The City of Tshwane has announced that residents, businesses and government departments who owe the municipality money must either pay their bills or risk cut-offs.
This is part of the city’s aggressive drive to collect about R6bn in six months to boost its revenues and ailing finances. Mayor Cilliers Brink said the metro has a R23.3bn debtors’ book that it aims to turn into cash to boost service delivery.
Among the defaulters are businesses and government departments who in the past had to be switched off for nonpayment during the “Tshwane Ya Tima” revenue collection campaign.
This campaign is now back in full swing and the city says it will target about 1,500 high-and defaulting consumers who owe the metro billions of rand. Residential households are very much part of the mix of defaulters.
It is understandable why the Tshwane metro has adopted this hard-line stance as most municipalities are struggling to sustain service delivery because of lack of resources.
In Tshwane, for example, the municipality has been beset by several service delivery failures including refuse collection and infrastructure maintenance, such as upgrading waste water treatment plants.
While these may partly be because the metro does not have enough resources owing to lower revenues collected from ratepayers, they are also an indicator of administrative dysfunction.
Therefore, the municipality needs to adopt an equally hardline stance in holding those who have contributed to its current state to account. We encourage residents who have not been paying their bills to do so to ensure the sustainability of all our municipalities.
But we would also encourage the City of Tshwane, for example, to be considerate in their debt-collection campaign, especially towards those who are willing to pay but find their finances stretched.
We believe those ratepayers who promise to honour their debt must be accommodated with an arrangement without stretching their budgets beyond limit. This is not only a humane thing to do but will ensure that those who owe continue to have water and electricity in their homes and are not cut off to add to their woes.
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