Ladysmith KZN: Millions of rands in rates not collected by municipality

Key details of Alfred Duma Local Municipality were discussed at last month’s Portfolio Committee meeting on Co-operative & Traditional Affairs, which was chaired by Members of Parliament.

The meeting was broadcast live on the Parliament of the Republic of South Africa’s Facebook page. It was revealed that there are millions of rands in rates not collected by our municipality.

Municipal Manager (MM) Miss SS Ngiba spoke about the issues pertaining to the collection of rates, stating that the municipality was at 81% in December with regards to the collection of rates and that not receiving 100% was due to debt owing by various government departments to the tune of 162 million.

Another challenge for them is the collection of rates in Ezakheni, due to Ezakheni being an Eskom area of electricity and they are not in charge of electricity.

Ezakheni owes the municipality R430 million in rates and the municipality says they have engaged with Eskom in terms of how they can assist (by possibly switching off the electricity) to ensure that the community pay their rates. The MM stated in the meeting that this is difficult, as Eskom and the municipality are two separate entities. Their engagements are continuing, but they are not sure if they will achieve what they want to.

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She added at the meeting that they have appointed people to carry out door-to-door collections of rates. Some people are paying, but the problem is that others say they will pay but they don’t when the time comes.

The MM also said they can’t force people to pay due to the electricity supply in the area. They do, however, have a revenue enhancement strategy to try and collect.

DA Uthukela Constituency Head, Alf Lees MP, commented on the matter by saying that the issue stems from the fact that the municipality failed to apply the law through their debt collection; and due to incompetent staff and political issues, they have made the issue worse.

Lees added that over 10 years ago, when he was a councillor, these issues were raised and nothing was done about the situation.

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