POLOKWANE – R30 million for 5 662 indigents’ municipal debts were written off for the period up to June 2013, according to a report tabled before the city council last Thursday.
A total of 7 716 indigent applications for the 2014/15 indigent register were captured by September 26. The remaining applicants were included in a batch resubmitted at the end of October for write-offs for the June 2014 balances.
The report stated that “the indigent registration process has been temporarily integrated into the normal day-to-day operations of the municipality. This means that more and more applications are handled and captured each day. This is to ensure all deserving indigent cus-tomers are added to the overall 2014/15 indigent register and also stand in line to receive write-off benefits”.
A special report on indigent registration to be fini-shed in December will detail the balance still owed by indigent applicants.
The report will detail the total balances owing for indigent applicants before write-off, the overall total write-off given to all indigents under the new resolution, and the balances remaining after write-offs.
The report will also contain statistics per ward of the total value of write-offs and applications.
Qualified indigents receive the following rebates:
• 6Kl free water per household.
• 100kWh electricity.
• 10% rebates on refuse, sewerage and basic charges.
• R100 000 of the market value of property exempted from levying assessment rates.
Service delivery challen-ges and protests in Man-kweng earlier this year led to a renewed drive to get indigents to register. The municipality projected R50 million for indigent support in the 2014/15 budget.
Indigent status is a reflection of the current status of a household and not limited to gardeners or domestic workers or people who receive grants only.
If a person is jobless and can prove it, and if the total household income does not exceed R5 400, one can be registered as an indigent for the period of unemployment.
