Residents are captive cash cows
A final demand for late payment has always been a last resort
BLANCHARD LAING of Bonaero Park writes:
It is disgusting that the arrogant Ekurhuleni Metro Council routinely issues a final notice only two days after due date has been exceeded, which involves a hefty punitive charge (“Final notice charged after payment“, Kempton Express, November 5).
Government bureaucracies seem to excel and thrill in imposing onerous conditions and financial impediments on the long-suffering public who pay their salaries via their taxes, and whom they are tasked to serve.
Also read:
• Final notice arrives every month
• Get the same people to deliver our accounts
By way of example, most state bureaucracies stubbornly refuse to accept cheque and credit card payments which would make it easier for citizens to fulfil their obligations such as municipal accounts and vehicle licences. This despite having details of their permanent residential domicile and having the massive power of the state to reverse any payments or simply revoke vehicle licences if fraud is later discovered.
Many years after the transport authorities added a so-called transaction charge onto our vehicle licence fee in order to compensate for their administrative blunders in setting up ARTO, we are shamefully still levied that ludicrous charge. It’s arrogance in the extreme.
The spineless politicians who we vote into office to supposedly protect our interests do little to curb the abuses of the administrations they ostensibly have political oversight over.
There is a vast difference between credit control in the private sector commercial terrain and the public sector behemoths. During my many years working for a major textile conglomerate, we have always valued our customer base or risked going to the wall, no matter how large we were or how impressive our product has been.
A final demand for late payment has always been a last resort, with no financial penalty, and only after all avenues of recovery had been exhausted. The credit manager would invariably initially contact an errant client either telephonically or in writing in an attempt to overcome any hiatus, to our mutual benefit. Our company would only resort to legal action if all efforts had proved fruitless.
The difference is that corporate enterprises need to be empathetic in order to survive and even flourish, whereas local and national government administrations have the public as captive cash cows. A ratepayer might have diligently paid his municipal account for decades but if he defaults by one day he is harshly penalised. It’s an atrocious abuse of client relations ethic.
The longer a government is in power the more arrogant they get, and eventually lose sight of the electorate’s power to hold them to account via the ballot box. Ultimately, unless we, the public, want to be perpetual whipping victim fodder, we need to send a strong message to government and local councils when we next exercise our precious vote.
