Debtors owe the City of Johannesburg (CoJ) at least R20.3 billion and they plan to take their pound of flesh.
According to recent media reports CoJ is going after its debtors by amending its credit-control and debt-collection policy in order to take action against those who owe the municipality money. This includes households, landlords and businesses who use city services illegally.
Policy amendments have been approved by the mayoral committee and the verdict is harsh. According to reports, CoJ will force customers whose services have been disconnected three times to install a prepaid meter. The municipality also plan on starting to charge interest on overdue accounts, make new customers sign a consumer agreement before providing services to a property and charge an exponential deposit to consumers who have failed to pay and need to be reconnected. For example, should a customer fail to pay for three or more consecutive months, the city may require a cash deposit greater than two months’ average consumption to reconnect them. The policy states a maximum of four months’ average consumption can be charged in deposit money.
The Record invited Ward 83 councillor Suzanne Clarke to comment on policy amendments as she has recently had numerous billing complaints from residents in her ward.
“A lot of the rules they claim to be new have been enforced in the past,” Clarke said upon hearing the amendments.
“I know that CoJ, for example, will expect a resident to pay 50 per cent of their overdue account before they’ll consider signing a debtor’s agreement, a sort of I-owe-you, with them.
“What I do have a problem with is the fact that due dates on many residents’ accounts have been moved earlier; they have a debit order for say the 25th of each month but the due date has now become the 15th of each month.”
Clarke said she seeks further clarity on the amendments before making a full statement, but plans on address billing issues by writing a letter to the acting executive director of Revenue Mike Dube and the MEC of Finance Barbara Creecy.
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