Move to dock pay of politicians
In a bid to tackle the culture of nonpayment to municipalities, a government department proposes extending to all political office-bearers and public servants a law that provides for docking of pay of councillors and staff indebted for rates and services.
In a bid to tackle the culture of nonpayment to municipalities, a government department proposes extending to political office-bearers and public servants a law that provides for docking the pay of councillors and staff indebted for rates and services.
Nonpayment for services has its roots in the liberation struggle when people refused to pay for services in an unjust system.
Urging consumers to pay up, President Cyril Ramaphosa said in his weekly newsletter that while nonpayment for municipal and other services had its place in the apartheid era to mobilise communities against an unjust system, it “no longer has a place in present-day SA.”
Finance minister Tito Mboweni has urged consumers to pay for the services of stateowned utilities and municipalities to improve the viability of those organisations.
As one of the initiatives to address a culture of nonpayment in municipalities, the department of co-operative governance & traditional affairs looked at the Municipal Systems Act, which prohibits councillors being in arrears to municipalities for more than three months.
The act empowers local authorities to deduct outstanding amounts from their staff members’ salaries.
In a presentation in parliament, the department of cooperative governance & traditional affairs recommended extending docking salaries to “officials of all organs of state and political office-bearers”.
The municipal debt problem is getting worse. At the end of the year to June 2019, municipalities were owed R165.5bn versus
R143.2bn for the previous matching period. Of this, it is thought that only about R40bn is realistically recoverable, SA Local Government Association (Salga) CEO Xolile George told reporters last week.
Salga is the umbrella body for local authorities.
Debt owed to municipalities is greater than that owed to Eskom (R25bn) and the water boards (R14.9bn). Soweto residents alone owe Eskom more than R18bn for power supplied directly by the power utility.
Salga says the inability of municipalities to pay their debts is linked directly to how much they are owed for rates and services. Salga president Thembi Nkadimeng said the organisation supported the department’s proposal for an extension of the provision in the Municipal Systems Act.
Nkadimeng said executives and political leadership at provincial and national levels should all be included, as well as all employees of the government and state-owned enterprises.
The department has also recommended not awarding tenders to bidders in debt to municipalities. This is subject to policy and legislative considerations, but has been discussed by members of an interministerial task team.
In its presentation, the department of co-operative governance & traditional affairs addressed the sorting out of problem billing systems and data used to bill customers.
It called for a simplified revenue plan to reduce municipal debt, maximise revenue streams and protect and enhance revenue collection. Poor revenue collection is a major issue affecting the ability of municipalities to fund budgets.
The department also suggested not approving building plans of property owners in debt to municipalities and not granting business licences to similarly indebted individuals and companies. Payments to suppliers should be withheld if they owe municipalities, it said. Customers should be profiled according to their credit history.
NONPAYMENT FOR MUNICIPAL AND OTHER SERVICES ‘NO LONGER HAS A PLACE IN PRESENT-DAY SA’