JOBURG TO WRITE OFF R15bn DEBT

Municipalities across the country owed about R100bn

MUNICIPALITIES across the country are owed just close to R100billion that the government is unable to recoup.

In a move likely to be viewed as electioneering, the City of Johannesburg plans to write off about R15-billion of its household debt.

But Joburg residents will first have to agree to prepaid meters being installed in their homes.

In a written reply to the munic- ipal public accounts committee during a March 4 meeting – the group finance department said that the “incentive ” was aimed at preventing future recurring debt.

“The City intends utilising the write-off as an incentive, where the debt will be written off on the agreement that prepaid meters will be installed. This will ensure that the debt relating to the same con-

– sumers does not build after the write-off, necessitating further write-offs in future years,” group finance writes.

Group finance spokesman Kgamanyane Maphologela said: “The City of Johannesburg currently doesn’t have a debt write-off incentive policy. The City is in the process of reviewing its credit control, debt collection policy and the bylaws.”

Academic and political officer at the Soweto Electricity Crisis Committee, Trevor Ngwane, dismissed the City’s debt write-off plan as a familiar political ploy that had been repeated many times over years.

In 1993, the Soweto People’s Delegation – of which Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa was part – managed to force the apartheid government to scrap millions of rands in rates owed by Sowetans, instead introducing a flat rate and ending the Soweto rent boycott in the process. But debt began to build up again. A subsequent write-off was introduced by Eskom in 1997. The utility introduced consumption-linked rates. Again debt built up.

Ngwane proposed increasing free basic services to the poor, the unemployed and pensioners. He said well-off suburbs and industries should be charged significantly higher rates than poor areas.