Tshwane slams ‘disorderly’ ANC councillors for disrupting debt drive

Mare-Lise Fourie, a member of the mayoral committee for finance, on Thursday condemned the “disorderly acts of ANC councillors”, which halted workers in Tshwane’s revenue collection campaign on Wednesday.

ANC councillors said they were not consulted over the collection and stopped workers from starting the door-to-door programme to establish who was unwilling to pay for municipal services and who was unable to pay.

Fourie said disruptions constitute a breach of the code of conduct, as set out in schedule 1 of the Municipal System Act, 2000.

Section 2(b) states “a councillor must at all times act in the best interest of the municipality and in such a way that the credibility and integrity of the municipality are not compromised”.

The campaign was launched to collect R8.6 billion of outstanding debt owed to the City of Tshwane.

“The disorderly acts of ANC councillors must be condemned in the strongest terms.

Revenue collection is one of the priorities of the current administration, more particularly because the city closed the previous financial year with a deficit in excess of R2 billion on the operating account.

The city needs this money to plough back into communities in the form of better services,” Fourie said.

The office of the speaker will investigate the ANC councillors’ conduct to establish if there are reasonable grounds for charges.

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