Joburg cracks the whip on councillors, employees in debt to the city

The city collects R13.2m of the R76m it is owed by employees and councillors

16 August 2023 - 18:37 By TimesLIVE
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The Johannesburg city council chamber. More than half of the councillors owe the city for unpaid municipal service bills.
The Johannesburg city council chamber. More than half of the councillors owe the city for unpaid municipal service bills.
Image: Supplied

The City of Johannesburg has collected R13.2m in municipal services debt from its employees and councillors, who collectively owed R76.3m as at the end of July. 

The municipality said it had deducted more than R7m from councillors' and permanent employees' salaries who are behind on their municipal bill payments. The municipality also received an additional R5.2m voluntary payments from councillors and employees.

The city said this was a clear demonstration that it was serious about collecting the debt owed to it, even from its own employees.

It's a firm demonstration that our credit control policy is enforced indiscriminately, including against our own employees, whom we expect to be exemplary in their conduct
Kgamanyane Maphologela, director of customer communications for CoJ group finance

“Out of a total of 13,323 employees who owe the city, about 140 of them are councillors and 13,183 are staff members.”

As the city has 270 councillors, this means more than half of them are in arrears. 

The city said councillors collectively owe it about R3.1m in overdue municipal service bills, while management — which includes levels such as CEOs, heads of departments, directors, deputy directors, assistant directors and supervisors — owes a combined R9.8m. The rest is owed  by junior staff.

Kgamanyane Maphologela, director of customer communications for the city's group finance department, said its employees were expected to be the first ones to promote and implement basic principles of public administration. 

“The credit control action that is taken by the city against its own employees is to demonstrate that we are coming after anyone who owes the city in unpaid municipal bills. It's a firm demonstration that our credit control policy is enforced indiscriminately including against our own employees, whom we expect to be exemplary in their conduct,” Maphologela said. 

He said most of the owing staff have entered into payment arrangements with the city. 

Maphologela said that according to the Municipal Systems Act, “a staff member of a municipality may not be in arrears to the municipality for rates and services for a period longer than three months, and a municipality may deduct any outstanding amounts from a staff member's salary after this period”. 

 Maphologela said in the coming weeks and months, the city will intensify its credit-control drive in a bid to collect outstanding revenue from all  categories of property owners. 

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