J.B. Marks Municipality could be facing water cuts by next week if it does not make arrangements to settle its bill.
This comes after the Minister of Water and Sanitation, Nomvula Mokonyane gave a stern warning to defaulting municipalities during a media briefing to pay up or face water cuts.
These municipalities owe the department a staggering R10.7 bn. According to its website, an estimated R70 million of this belongs to JB Marks.
According to Hans-Jurie Moolman, the DA caucus chairperson, the DA councillors only learnt of this debt through the media. ‘It is worrying when duly elected councillors within the municipality are not informed of situations that affect the municipality,’ he said. According to him, the debt appears to be historic debt carried over from Ventersdorp.
To date, the department had issued 59 summonses for non-payment. Of those, the OR Tambo District in the Eastern Cape was the only municipality that has complied with the payment plan that was agreed upon.
Moolman says the local councillors do not receive regular financial reports anymore and are, therefore, worried about where the money will come from to service this debt. ‘We challenge the mayor to call a special council meeting for all the councillors to discuss what to do next. We can also discuss the true financial implications of the amalgamation for the municipality and Potchefstroom, in particular,’ he said.
During such a meeting, Moolman says he would like to find out what other information is being withheld from the councillors.
The minister warned that the defaulting municipalities could find their equitable share from Treasury being withheld until a payment arrangement has been agreed upon.
‘What we are really at pains to avoid is hurting the end user, particularly the indigent who cannot afford to pay.
But, we will not be merciful towards those who cannot effectively carry out their core business of billing, generating revenue and, most importantly, maintaining the infrastructure so we do not have huge water losses,’ she said.
At the time of going to print, the municipality had still not responded to the Herald’s questions about whether a payment agreement had been reached or how this situation had been allowed to carry on unchecked until a debt of R70 million had been accrued. The Herald also wanted to know whether or not this was another situation where the taxpayers of Potchefstroom have had to come to the rescue of the Ventersdorp municipality.