The Gauteng provincial government says it is committed to paying the rates and services it owes to the City of Johannesburg.It was responding to a statement by Johannesburg Mayor Herman Mashaba on Monday‚ who ordered the ANC-led provincial government to pay R259 million in outstanding municipal rates or face a disconnection of services.Sanral says Mashaba’s e-toll comments are ‘just playing to the gallery’Herman Mashaba was “possibly just playing to the gallery” when he warned that Joburg’s metro police will not be allowed to harass motorists about e-tolls‚ the South African National Roads Agency Limited (Sanral) said on Wednesday. Mashaba said Gauteng Premier David Makhura would be given 30 days to either pay or sign a repayment agreement with the city.Dignity of people in Alex trumps cycles lanes: Mashaba defends decisionSandton resident Herman Mashaba is taking the R70-million allocated to bicycle lanes and reassigning it to ensure the “dignity” of his “neighbours” in Alexandra by providing services like water and toilets. “Failure to do so will result in the city taking immediate action - where possible cutting services to defaulting departments‚” Mashaba said.Mayor orders overhaul of Jozi's billing systemJohannesburg mayor Herman Mashaba will convene a billing indaba to improve the city's revenue collection after consumer debt grew by R2.8-billion in just three months. However‚ the provincial government said the current administration made a commitment as far back as 2014 to ensure challenges relating to the billing and unpaid municipal rates were addressed.The provincial government said according to the latest quarterly report on Municipal Financial Performance published in the government gazette last month‚ the City of Johannesburg was owed R16bn by government‚ residents and business.Government and parastatals owed R588 m‚ commercial customers owed R6bn and residential customers owed R8.7bn“As at June 2016‚ the Gauteng provincial government owed R242.503m‚ which is 1.5% of the R16.1 billion in rates and services.”Makhura’s spokesperson‚ Phumla Sekhonyane‚ said while the Gauteng provincial government had consistently made provision for payment of municipal rates‚ it was discovered that the allocated budget was not sufficient to cover historical debt which had accumulated due to disputed bills.She said in the tabling of the 2015/2016 Provincial Adjustment Appropriation‚ the Gauteng finance MEC Barbara Creecy made additional allocations for municipal services accounts totalling R334m. This amounted to a total payment of R679m by the end of the financial year.In the tabling of the 2016/2017 Provincial Main Appropriation‚ the province allocated an additional R1.2bn over the Medium Term Expenditure Framework to address the property rates accruals.“This demonstrates the full commitment by the provincial government in ensuring that monies due to municipalities are paid.”Makhura also expressed concern at the tone of Mashaba’s statement and its implications for the constitutional imperative of cooperative governance.Makhura said there were a number of areas where the province worked with municipalities through joint committees such as health‚ housing and budgets.“The fact that there are new mayors who have not taken time to familiarise themselves with our work does not mean issues raised have not been dealt with‚” Makhura said...