The City of Johannesburg led a Buya Mthetho Operation on January 16 which led to the discovery of almost R9-million in lost revenue.
MMC for Finance, Clr Funzela Ngobeni, said this was the result of illegal connections to the city’s services since 2015.
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“The three properties, which were visited, were also found not to have complied with the city’s by-laws and were fined. At some of the properties it was established that water and sewer accounts were not registered with the city and therefore not billed for the last three years,” said Ngobeni.
The operation was led by Buya Mthetho director, Lufuno Mashau, and the city’s COO Floyd Brink under Ngobeni’s directive.
During the operation, it was also found that one of the properties did not have an occupation certificate.
“Despite residents occupying the 300-unit property, an occupation certificate was never issued at the property, meaning residents are living in this property illegally. Furthermore, this means the property is not correctly evaluated by the city without an occupation certificate. The city issued a 14-days’ notice for the property owners to comply.”
Ngobeni said the amount of revenue lost due to illegal connections amounts to billions lost annually and hinders the delivery of services across Johannesburg.
“Non-compliance is of great concern in the city, especially since some properties go without being billed for years. Through Operation Buya Mthetho, the city will make every attempt to recover what we have lost during the development of these three properties. The operation will continue to engage in such inspections in order to reclaim the city’s revenue which is meant to change the lives of the poor in Johannesburg.”
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