MBOMBELA – Municipal employees and elected councillors benefited from the recent Lishumi eShumini – Rand for Rand payment-incentive scheme.
Mbombela Local Municipality (MLM) offered residents with arrears accounts for water, electricity and service rate tariffs the opportunity to repay only 50 per cent of what they owe between September and October of last year. The balance of their debt was written off.
Some reliable ratepayers objected to being “punished” for paying their dues in full every month. The municipality has since agreed to a one per cent discount on accounts paid in full by the seventh day of each month, mostly after campaigning on the matter by the DA councillor for Hazyview Mr Ken Robertson.
But it recently emerged that municipal employees and elected councillors also benefited from the scheme. The matter was brought up, again by Robertson, during an ordinary council meeting on June 30. He said the code of conduct stipulated that municipal officials and councillors were not allowed to have accounts in arrears, and requested that council investigate whether some of them withheld payment in anticipation of the planned discount.
“I fail to see how anyone fails to see the conflict of interest,” he said.
But MMC for economic development, Mr Bheki Zulu, said he failed to see what could be investigated.
“It was a policy we approved. We never said a councillor or official couldn’t be a part of it. It never arose that they may not benefit. We know that councillors and officials are benefitting. What must be investigated?”
Zulu appeared on the list of 12 councillors whose consumer accounts to MLM were in arrears, according to the financial statements for the year which ended on June 30, 2014. They owed the municipality R21 409 at the end of the financial year. Also on the list was the Speaker Ms Jesta Sidell who owed R4 990. The total for 2014 amounted to R153 389, down from the R160 155 total in arrears at the end of 2013.
During the meeting last week the municipality’s finance department said that all the councillors had since either paid the money or made arrangement to settle their accounts.
Executive mayor Cllr Sibusiso Mathonsi explained that the scheme had been implemented in response to recommendations made by the Auditor-General and was meant for all customers of the municipality. “We were not sentimental,” he said. “I think we were in line and I can’t accede to Robertson’s statement.”
MLM has credited the repayment scheme with helping it collect a large chunk of outstanding revenue. Sidell ruled that MLM had achieved its objectives in enhancing its revenue collection, and closed the matter.
