Indigent bill more than R282m

BCM expenditure on free services in 2016-17

BUFFALO City Metro spent more than R282.3-million providing free basic services to its registered indigent customers in the 2016-17 financial year.

The indigent subsidy is funded by National Treasury. As of June 30 this year, the metro had 75 678 registered indigent residents.

City manager Andile Sihlahla said in a report tabled before council recently that the customers received a monthly subsidy related to free basic services including water and electricity.

Although indigent, these residents are still required to pay monthly service accounts within the threshold prescribed in BCM’s budget policy, to avoid rising debt and electricity blocking.

Between July 2016 and May 2017, the metro managed to collect only R45.5-million from indigent customers.

Sihlahla’s report highlighted how the payments were unstable and inconsistent. The highest payment amount was recorded in September at R4.8-million and the lowest collected amount was R2.9-million in February this year.

“Related to electricity on the prepayment electricity system, customers must claim the free 50kW when making a purchase on a monthly basis, and those customers who are still on conventional metering receive the 50kW rebate on their monthly statement.

“During the financial year and after debt collection action has been implemented as prescribed in the credit control policy, unpaid amounts related to indigent debtors are submitted to council for approval to be written off,” said Sihlahla.

While the council had resolved earlier this year for the administration to stop blocking electricity to owing indigent customers, Sihlahla said the blocking of the customers should not be changed as BCM had a duty to collect all revenue.

He said the debtors must keep their monthly services accounts within the threshold to prevent debt from increasing “unnecessarily”, resulting in the blocking of electricity.

His recommendation was widely rejected by council, with executive mayor Xola Pakati calling for a moratorium on blocking indigent customers.

“Council has taken a decision on unblocking the indigent customers. What needs to be done is a balancing between the policy proposal on blocking and the council resolution.”

EFF caucus leader Chumani Matiwane pleaded for a policy amendment to be implemented to stop the blocking of indigent customers.

ANC ward councillor Crosby Kolela accused the administration of not implementing council resolutions.

“We have many complaints; somebody gets blocked for R100 while they had in the previous week paid R5 000.

“Why is that? We might say that is an administrative issue but when there are protests like the one in Breidbach it is the politicians who will go there and we should assist each other here, from the side of the officials,” said Kolela.

DA councillor Terence Fritz called for a policy change, saying people were incorrectly billed yet still expected to pay. —