Non-payment for services by residents at municipal level will no longer be tolerated. That is the warning issued by the Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs,(COGTA). The Department says municipalities in the province are owed R13 billion.
The Dumbe Municipality is home to at least 89 000 residents. Like many rural areas, challenges of poor infrastructure and services are evident.
The municipality says part of the problem is that residents are not paying for their services, such as water and electricity.
More than R120 million is owed to the municipality.
“As the municipality, we owe Eskom, R12 million as we speak because when we bought electricity, we paid R1,5 million but after collection, I think we collecting plus or minus R500 000,” said the municipality’s Majuba Mavuso.
The provincial government is embarking on a campaign to recoup more than R13 billion from traffic fines to rates owed by big businesses.
Authorities say non-payment runs the risk of municipalities collapsing.
“We said we must take a very strong stance, whoever in business is not paying, we have asked why this business person is not paying and we must go switch off at the same time. Government departments that are not paying, let us go and switch off,” said KZN COGTA MEC, Nomusa Dube-Ncube.
Authorities say this campaign will be rolled out across the province.
