Reward awaits those who pay their accounts
Everyone is encouraged to participate as early as possible and reap the rewards. The initiative will be implemented at the municipal offices and communicated through print media and radio going forward.
LYDENBURG – Thaba Chweu Municipality (TCM) is now rewarding residents and businesses for settling their long-outstanding municipal debts. For the first time ever, TCM will now implement a debt-reduction payment incentive scheme. The purpose being to reward loyal paying consumers who keep their current accounts up to date and to motivate non-paying ones.
The chief financial officer (CFO) of TCM, Mr Lesley Mokwena told the newspaper that this should reduce consumers’ debt burden and increase the payment rate by at least 15 per cent per month, improving cash flow.
“It’s not a dream, it’s for real. Council resolved in its sitting of March 31 to give all municipal residents and businesses the opportunity to make good on their long-outstanding municipal accounts. The objective at the end of the day is to improve council’s cash-flow situation and to use this incentive initiative to collect the muchneeded cash for municipal service-delivery programmes. At the same meeting council also resolved to deal with the issue of longoverdue “parked amounts” once and for all by way of a write-off.”
The CFO explained that council agreed that the parked amounts were largely as result of weaknesses in the council’s billing system over the years. The executive mayor, Cllr Michael Bafana Ncongwane added,
“We think the problem of parked amounts Narda Vermaak Reward awaits those who pay their accounts could have been resolved much earlier, but we also commend the council for the decision today. I also need to praise those who paid their parked amounts and kept their accounts up to date at all times for exercising responsible civic duties. They must not regret their decisions.”
During his presentation to the finance portfolio committee, Mokwena indicated that this was a much-needed debt relief for the community of TCM and businesses alike. “We want to reward our loyal paying residents who keep their municipal accounts up to date every month just as a way of appreciation, but also to encourage them to keep their account current, so we can reduce the chances of such accounts falling into arrears. These loyal consumers have really assisted to keep the municipality’s cash flow going, and this initiative must also serve as a thank you gesture.”
The packages vary from 50 per cent discounts on 30-day settlements to 10 per cent if accounts are settled over a six-month period. He said on the business side, they hoped this debt relief would go a long way in strengthening the business economy of TCM. Mokwena said as at the end of March 2015, the municipal debt for unpaid consumer services and rates stand at about R154 million for both businesses and households. Continue
From a finance and economic point of view, if people understand the value of money over time, council is better off, for example receiving at least 50 per cent of the debt today than waiting forever to receive it from the public.
“It’s a win-win situation for both council and our customers.” Mokoena said the service-delivery problems of TCM were well known, and the municipality wanted to pass the confidence to the community at large and that it was well on track to come out of the crisis situation. “The much-needed cash flow is going to assist us to come out of this crisis quickly but also to accelerate our service delivery.
“To date several progressive plans are in place to address the key issues like roads, among others. “We are currently implementing a road maintenance programme which will be extended to other towns before June this year. The repairs and maintenance of electricity infrastructure is well in place and funded. Council has also approved additional funding for finalisation of electrification projects in Mashishing Extension 8 and to upgrade the related network before the end of the financial year.
He said there was a dedicated programme to address the electricity account which had long been outstanding with Eskom. “To date we are working on a programme to bring the account to date and avoid any threats of disconnection and avoid the panic once and for all. “Council has also recently approved a smart metering project which will be announced soon to deal with issues of electricity billing.
“The project aims to maximise electricity billing and collection, but also to deal with illegal connections. Various mines and businesses have come on board and we would like to extend our gratitude for their assistance.” He said that TCM anticipated receiving a good response in terms of the payment levels going forward and wanted to thank all the ratepayers in advance.
“The municipality is striving on a daily basis to improve the governance environment and spending patterns to ensure value for money from every cent we receive from ratepayers and government grants alike. “To this end the mayor would like to thank the people of TCM on behalf of council for their responsible citizenry and their support for realising municipality’s service delivery plans. It’s very encouraging to us and our municipal employees alike.”
Everyone is encouraged to participate as early as possible and reap the rewards. The initiative will be implemented at the municipal offices and communicated through print media and radio going forward.
