EMM’s member of the mayoral committee (MMC) for finance, Clr Moses Makwakwa, said it was revealed during the council meeting last Tuesday that the metro had failed to reach its rates collection target.
The metro only scored just above 91 percent of collection, instead of its target of 95 percent.
While the metro’s collection rates had improved from previous figures, it was still behind its target.
Clr Makwakwa said the metro’s contractors, who are assigned to do meter readings, were not doing their job as well as they were in the past.
“This has been affecting the job of those contractors who had to cut off the services. But now all that has improved. The challenge we have is to enforce the law in areas where electricity is supplied by Eskom. We are looking at ways to deal with it,” he said.
He added that councillors and metro’s officials are also visiting the different areas that have low collection rates.
“The Eskom-supplied areas are the problem. We have been visiting these areas. During our visits we are trying to find out if people in these communities know that they have service accounts to pay. We are also trying to establish if they know that they can register as indigents if they qualify,” said Clr Makwakwa.
He added that the visits are still continuing.
He urged councillors across the metro to encourage residents to pay their rates.
“In other places we find that the collection rate is 0.1 percent. When we check, we find that the only person who is paying is the ward councillor. Maybe we have to make it part of a councillor’s assessment that people in his ward pay their rates,” Clr Makwakwa said.
The matter was referred back to the portfolio committee for further deliberation.
