Cllr Peter Verbeek of Ward 10 in the Emfuleni Local Municipality, writes:

Could the behaviour of the Finance and Revenue Department make Emfuleni to possibly stumble and fall?

During a Section 80 Finance and Revenue Committee Meeting, held in April or May of 2020, an item was discussed detailing a possible write-off of around R4,5 billion.

A few months ago, the Metro of Johannesburg has implemented a 50% write-off of debt.

The importance of these write-offs are that debt accounts of residents are reduced and amended. In other words, a case could be made that due to this omission, Emfuleni residential accounts will not reflect such an amendment and therefore are, in theory, higher than they currently should be.

This raises an ethical question as to the “intention” with which the staff of the Emfuleni Local Municipality, and in particular, the Finance and Revenue Department, have approached the present electricity disconnections. If the agreed upon write-off as accepted by the Section 80 Finance and Revenue Committee was brought to Emfuleni Council, and, a possible 50% residential write-off as implemented by the Metro of Johannesburg, in theory, Emfuleni residential accounts should be lower than currently is the case without both these write-offs.

This against the background that Emfuleni Local Municipality, as an institution, is accountable to the public through the Public Administration and Management Act No. 11 of 2014. Chapter 2, Section 4 highlights, that Emfuleni as an institution:(f) be accountable to the public;(g) foster transparency by providing the public with timely, accessible and accurate information.

In other words, the staff of Emfuleni Local Municipality should act in the best interests of the residents of the municipality. This means that the Finance and Revenue Department should have firstly brought the two write-offs to Emfuleni Council before commencing on a process of informing residents as to their arrears and the possible pending process of electricity disconnections. The current behaviour of the Finance and Revenue Department (notification of arrears, disconnection of electricity, write-off to Emfuleni Council) questions the alignment of Emfuleni as an institution, and specifically the Finance and Revenue Department, with the Public Administration and Management Act.

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