DA demands equitable credit control
Ekurhuleni residents could lose their houses and all their possessions should the Ekurhuleni Metro's credit control system continue at its current level of inefficiency.
This is according to Bruce Reid, DA councillor in Ward 43 and member of the Finance Committee in council.
He said the DA has long noticed that there is no equality in the way the metro implements credit control and continues to raise its concerns with the governing party.
“The metro has allowed some residents’ bills to climb to more than twice the value of their homes. If the metro were to try to collect on the money it is owed by attaching and auctioning these residents’ houses, cars and valuable possessions, those residents would still be paying off their bills for the rest of their lives,” said Reid.
“Far too many residents do not receive regular bills in the post and are unable to reach the Finance Department on the numbers provided.
“These residents then normally choose to pay the same amount on the last bill received. If they happen to pay as little as R100 short, they are issued with a final notice and their electricity is cut off.
“In other areas, residents’ electricity is not cut and in some cases bills have grown staggeringly, to over R500 000. This is not equitable credit control.
“These residents are now in the precarious situation where they owe more money to the metro than they will ever be able to pay in their lifetime.”
“Of the R12-billion owed to the metro, R9-b is more than 90 days overdue and will probably end up being written off as bad debt, because the metro refuses to adopt a universal credit control policy that is equal to all residents and provides assistance to those who need it most.
“Among other probing questions, the DA will be interrogating every debt write-off, but also finding out precisely why some residents are cut off for R100 and others are not cut for thousands.”
