Piet de Jager, DA councillor for Ward 6 has questioned the growing primary debt of the Westonaria Local Municipality.
According to De Jager, “The bad service delivery can be attributed mainly to the lack of finances, which is the direct result of non-compliance in respect of debt collecting.”
He feels the ANC-run town council is responsible for their own crisis.
The DA requested numerous times that the council should follow their own policy to ensure that debt collection is successful and that debt decreases rather than increases.”
The total outstanding debt:
• End February – R343 300 000
• End April – R371 500 000
• Growth in debt in the two months – R28 200 000
Total outstanding debt end February 2015:
• Simunye – R154 222 000
• Bekkersdal – R53 932 000
• Westonaria town – R21 324 000
Outstanding debt end April 2015:
• Simunye – R181 137 000
• Bekkersdal – R54 322 000
• Westonaria town – R22 241 000
Growth in debt:
• Simunye – 17,45 per cent
• Bekkersdal – 0,73 per cent
• Westonaria town – 4,3 per cent
Kgabane Madiehe, spokesperson for the Executive Mayor responded,
The Westonaria Municipality is implementing what is known as credit control policy. This is a policy by which the municipality cuts the services of those who fail to pay or owe the municipality R500 and more.
“The municipality sends statements to all its clients on a monthly basis. For those owing above R500, the municipality sends smses and pre-notices. If one fails to pay, council terminates the service.
However, council does have a programme for indigent households. “These are households whose monthly income is less than R2 600. They are invited to register for this programme as those who are approved are exempt from paying for services. To date the municipality has just over 4 000 households registered as indigent and they are getting free water, electricity and free waste removal, and they pay no rates and taxes.”
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