Pay? You want us to pay!
The accounts are for R9,094.06 and R4,918.62 respectively. Both accounts are in arrears for over 120 days. Neither has a current payment reflected.
A VRYHEID resident came into the Vryheid Herald last week. He said, “I think you might be interested in these”, and handed over two consumers’ accounts from AbaQulusi Municipality.
The resident had been to the Post Office to collect his post, and noticed the municipal accounts lying discarded on the floor. Curious, he picked them up and looked at them.
One is for a consumer in the low cast housing area known as Bhekuzulu 6B, the other just has only a Stand Number.
The accounts are for R9,094.06 and R4,918.62 respectively. Both accounts are in arrears for over 120 days. Neither has a current payment reflected.
They were delivered to different Box numbers at the Post Office. Perhaps the consumers supplied the municipality with a false Box number and the legitimate Box renter simply discarded the accounts when he or she collected their post. Perhaps this way the consumer can claim, “I never got an account”.
If the correct Box number was supplied and the actual consumer threw away the account, then it simply indicates that there was no intention even to consider payment.
What the Vryheid resident wanted to know (among other things) was how these consumers were able to get away with it for so long. “If you’re in town and you don’t pay by the ninth of the month, then a couple of days later you’re cut off. Why are they allowed to get away with owing the municipality thousands?”
It’s a good question.
It might be the reason that the municipality is now owed over R100-million by its residents.
The municipality announced last week that a company called BIGEN AFRICA was about to attempt to recover monies owed.
