Madibeng owes almost R60m to water suppliers

The Madibeng municipality owes just short of R60 million to bulk water suppliers, and Minister of Water and Sanitation Nomvula Mokonyane announced on Monday that municipalities that had failed to honour outstanding water bills had until early next month to start paying their debt, or the water would be choked.

The water and sanitation department had issued notices to defaulting municipalities demanding that they make arrangements to pay their share of R10.7 billion owed to the various water authorities before December 8, Kormorant reports.

If Madibeng does not pay, the various bulk water suppliers will choke supply to the municipality.

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“In order for us to provide water‚ there must be revenue coming in‚” the minister said. She said the attitude of the municipalities towards the debt was a big part of the problem.

“We are saying to local government‚ we put the 25 litres per day for each person through your system as local government. It gets trapped in the systems and inefficiencies.”

Mokonyane said that it was not expected of the municipalities to settle the entire outstanding amounts in a single payment, but they must commit to pay and negotiate with the department about payment plans.

“But we have to show them we mean business‚ or else there will never be water.”

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