CoM residents owe millions for water
At present, 70% of the municipality's water revenue is collected from just 30% of its residents.
The FF Plus councillor, Ken Robertson, revealed that City of Mbombela (CoM) residents owe the municipality R80m for water, that had not been paid since 2012.
“Many of the outstanding accounts are due to disputes relating to water consumption between residents and the municipality, inaccurate billing, illegal water connections and a culture of non-payment. At present, 70% of the municipality’s water revenue is collected from just 30% of its residents, mainly from Hazyview, White River, Mbombela and Barberton,” Robertson said.
This is despite the municipality offering a 1% discount for timely payments. Robertson called for urgent attention to these matters to settle disputes and for strong action to be taken against non-payers.
“The FF Plus will continue to put pressure on the municipality to improve its collection rate. The CoM’s mayor, Sibongile Makushe, undertook during a council meeting on April 29 to implement water consumption audits to evaluate physical meter readings, monthly billing for water consumption and water theft,” he said.
The CoM’s spokesperson, Joseph Ngala, said there are indeed outstanding debts of customers for services consumed. The municipality has a consolidated account wherein all the services are included per account, not just water.
Accounts are dispatched to the customers monthly. Through credit control enforcement measures, customers are reminded to pay their accounts through SMSs, reminder letters and final demand notices.
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“The municipality is currently implementing robust credit control measures to ensure collection of outstanding debts. Where there is an electricity connection, it is either disconnected or blocked. For water connections, a restriction on the water supply is applied. The municipality is confident that with the measures being implemented, the monies owed will be recovered,” Ngala said.
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