This according to a press release in which the party claims Ekurhuleni residents could lose their houses and possessions if the ANC-led municipality’s credit control systems continue at its current level of inefficiency.
The DA said it had noticed that there is no equality in the way EMM implements credit control and it continues to raise its concerns with the governing party.
“EMM allowed some residents’ bills to climb to more than twice the value of their homes. If the metro were to try and collect on the money it is owed by attaching and auctioning residents’ houses, cars and valuable possessions, those residents would still be paying off their bills for the rest of their lives,” Bruce Reid, member of the DA’s financial oversight committee explained.
Too many residents still do not receive regular bills in the mail and are unable to reach the Finance Department on the telephone numbers provided. Residents that don’t receive regular bills, normally opt to pay the same amount as the previous bill, but if they happen to pay as little as R100 short, they are issued with a final notice and their electricity is cut off.
In some areas it is reported that residents’ electricity is not being cut, despite being in arrears and the accounts have grown to staggering amounts. “This is not equitable credit control. Those residents are in the precarious situation where they owe more money to the EMM than they will ever be able to pay in their lifetime.”
Bruce said he is forced to ask whether this is a ploy by the ANC to deliberately not collect money owed from certain residents in order to gain votes for the ANC and once they are in over their heads, the houses can be attached and sold to ANC cadres.
Of the R12b owed to the metro, R9b has been outstanding for over 90 days and according to the DA it will probably end up being written off as bad debt, because the EMM refuses to adopt a universal credit control policy that is equal to all residents and provides assistance to those that need it most.
Amongst other probing questions the DA will be interrogating every debt write-off but also finding out precisely why some residents are cut off for R100 and others are not cut for thousands.
