The City of Johannesburg will force both errant residents and businesses to take up prepaid meters. This comes after electricity and water theft, among other factors, caused the city to miss its revenue target of R624-million for the months July, August and September.Now the city's finance committee wants to know "to what extent residential consumers as opposed to large power users are contributing to the non-technical losses".Johannesburg loses about 219 billion litres of water or R1-billion in revenue and a further R2-billion worth of electricity annually.But discrepancy in reported figures means the city could have actually undercollected on rates and services to the amount of R1.63-billion.To curb this trend, the city will compel customers to agree to have prepaid water and electricity meters to be installed in their properties, in exchange for writing off R8-billion in debt.The city had initially intended to write off only R3-billion, but increased the amount to be cleared off its books after the debtor's book grew larger than expected - by R793-million by the end of September.Among those whose debt still reflects on the city's books are:112397 deceased estate accounts, which collectively owe the City of Johannesburg almost R1.3-billion;More than 21000 liquidated or sequestrated accounts owing R541-million; andAbout 500000 inactive accounts owing R1.5-billion.A report the city served to the finance committee stated: "The shortfall in collection comprises an undercollection of R624-million in water and electricity billing, a shortfall of R13.7-million in fines revenue and an undercollection of agency services revenue of R18.3-million."But electricity and water theft are not the only factors leading to non-payment for municipal services."The decline in household income due to increased unemployment was also cited as a challenge."Despite the debt owed, authorities say Johannesburg is in a "strong liquidity position, with cash and cash equivalents amounting to R5.586-billion"...