New action for municipal debt

AN OFFICIAL notice in the Vryheid Herald this week, advises residents of AbaQulusi Municipality, who are in arrears with their municipal accounts, that new measures are being implemented to collect these arrears.

The municipality has entered into a three-year agreement with an independent company that specialises in “revenue enhancement”. The company, BIGEN AFRICA, will assist the municipality in the recovery of outstanding consumer debt.

Consumers in arrears will soon receive SMS messages, telephone calls, final notices and ultimately electricity disconnections and pre-paid meter blocks.

If that doesn’t work, BIGEN AFRICA will pursue the legal route.

Indigent consumers will have to have completed and approved an indigent application.

In the notice, consumers in arrears are encouraged to contact BIGEN AFRICA in order to make arrangements to settle their debts, presumably to stop further action being taken.

The notice appears in Afrikaans, English and isiZulu in the Legal Notices section of the newspaper.