About 500 GMM employees don’t pay for services

More than 500 Govan Mbeki municipal employees are not paying municipal accounts. Zuma revealed all of this when tabling the first quarter performance report to the council last week.

He said a portfolio committee was set up to conduct oversight of the financial performance of the municipal administration.

This committee found that more than 500 municipal employees are not paying or servicing their municipal accounts. A further report on defaulting councillors was also tabled.

Zuma said even state organs are owing the municipality an amount of R173m. Businesses owe R318m while households owe R2,7 billion to the municipality.

The mayor said the municipality is struggling to pay Eskom and Rand Water. The combined debt of these entities is R3,8 billion, while GMM owes other creditors about R56m.

Zuma said the committee will roll out an oversight programme to make sure the defaulting consumers’ services are cut off.

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“We will be focusing on businesses and state organs with the understanding that they are able to service their accounts if they were serious,” said Zuma.

Mayor Zuma also said the municipality’s revenue collection is under-performing. He said the municipality is collecting only about 60% of its potential revenue.

The number of people employed by the municipality is also in question. The executive mayor, Nhlakanipho Zuma said an audit will be done to verify who are municipal employees.

A discrepancy in the number supplied by the department of corporate services and that of the department of finance, prompted the audit that will hopefully expose ghost employees.

Zuma said one department indicated that 1 176 people work for the municipality, while the other department came up with another number.

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