Ekurhuleni terminates services to defaulters, collects R800K on first day of campaign

The City of Ekurhuleni has embarked on an aggressive campaign to target businesses and state departments that fail to pay for services or cut off their supplies immediately. The city desperately needs to recover R24 billion owed by residents as well.

State-owned enterprises (SOEs) alone owe well above R90 million, which is in the 90 days unpaid stage. The switch-offs are in line with the city’s credit control measures and policies.

Ekurhuleni vs defaulters

According to MMC for finance Nkululeko Dunga, who is also the Economic Freedom Fighters’ (EFF) Gauteng provincial chair, the city will terminate services of all defaulters immediately and the process has begun.

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The EFF is part of the tripartite mayoral committee along with the ANC and the African Independent Congress, but the ruling “people’s government” comprises nine parties altogether.

“This indicates there is no sense of urgency when it comes to timeous payment for services delivered. It also illustrates a grossly unequal system as customers are swiftly disconnected for far less.

“This administration is not going to be remembered as one that can easily hold residents accountable by cutting their electricity supply if their accounts are overdue by 90 days while failing to do the same to businesses, SOEs and government departments,” Dunga said.

The MMC said the metro would ensure that not only residents were held accountable for defaulting, but also the deep-pocketed defaulters such as property owners, SOEs and government departments. To deal with this problem, last month the city launched Operation Siyacima Manje-Namhlanje (meaning “we switch off now and today”).

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Already non-payers are feeling the pinch and city officials from various departments are being accompanied by the metro police and the SA Police Service.

R800k collected

About R800 000 was collected on the spot on the first day of the campaign from a business in the affluent suburb of Bedfordview. Some properties with illegal electricity connections were also cut off.

Dunga said illegal connections cost the city about R1.2 billion in loss of potential revenue the previous financial years.

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“Working together is the only way that we are going to achieve the target of recouping outstanding funds by January 2024. “Each and every person who forms part of this operation adds an invaluable skill-set that will assist the operation achieve success,” Dunga said.

In May, Dunga announced a budget of over R57 billion of which R22 billion was revenue collected from electricity and water services. This constituted 38% of the city’s budget.

But Dunga expressed concern that the revenue collection was not up to the level they needed to keep the city’s head above water. He said the city was under immense pressure due to inability to collect revenue for services rendered. This was exacerbated by Eskom’s load shedding.

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It is to aggressively embark on a revenue collection drive in the new 2023-24 financial year to reach the 95% collection target to enable it to fund the next budget and deliver basic services.

– ericn@citizen.co.za