More than 13 000 KwaDukuza residents could be relieved of high-interest rates for money owed to the municipality.
KwaDukuza mayor Ricardo Mthembu launched a new debt incentive system which put in place a grant amnesty for those who are financially unfit to pay debts owed to council.
This comes after the department of cooperative governance and traditional affairs recently asked municipalities to reduce debts by 50 percent.
Speaking at the KwaDukuza Town Hall on Monday, Mthembu said the scheme would enhance debt recovery by empowering debtors to make settlement arrangements without any accumulated interest for a fixed period.
“We have an understanding of what the council and our people are facing, we also adopted the incentive scheme knowing that it is not easy for our ratepayers and we think this is the right direction to take. The programme is about finding solutions and it is about working together. Through these actions, we will make sure that we recover arrear debts in a way that will not put pressure on customers and also in a way that will advance service delivery,” said Mthembu.
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Ilembe Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Commerce CEO Cobus Ooelofse said he was in support of the new scheme but cautioned that non-payments could become a norm.
“Affordability is a subjective and controversial matter, which demands much more consideration than my contribution. The non-payment of municipal consumer debt is crippling municipal service delivery, not only in KwaDukuza, but in the whole of South Africa.
“KDM are also urged to ensure that disputes about charges are dealt with speedily and fairly, especially when it comes to disputes involving business. In conclusion, the Chamber supports the issuing of penalties for non-payment without legitimate reasons.
“A further caution is that, where non-payments become the norm, non-compliance will not be considered a big issue – something our community can ill afford.”
More than 13 000 KwaDukuza residents are in arrears, with a total of R173 million owed over unpaid rates, electricity, traffic fines, refuse removal and other services.
The debtor’s incentive scheme will be open for applications from November 1 2018 to June 26, 2019.
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