DA mayoral candidate Herman Mashaba is disgusted at the fact that CoJ this week took the decision to write off R15.6 billion in debt, calling it “a slap in the face to poor residents of Joburg”.
Mashaba made his disappointment in the decision known in a press statement, saying the failure to collect billions owed to the municipality is a clear failure of governance which shows weak financial controls.
The culprits in this case are both residential and business customers as well as national and provincial government departments. The large amount of debt was made known in Parliament on 2 March by the South African Local Government Association (Salga) who called on the government to help recover these debts. In the mean time CoJ took the decision to write off that which it is owed. Joburg Metro COO Gerald Dumas said they will deal with customers whose debt was written off in this decision by forcing them to have prepaid meters installed. Dumas proposed to further aid their situation by moving them to “extended social packages”, whereby they will receive a rebate.
According to Mashaba, “The written-off revenue could have been invested in more houses, clinics, schools and vital infrastructure — bringing residents some much-needed relief — but instead, commercial and government debtors are getting off scott-free.”
He maintains a large portion of the debt could have been collected with some effort, and calls on Mayor Parks Tau and city officials to account for their failure to recover it.
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