By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The City of Joburg is in a mission to claiming back more than R38 billion which businesses, residents and government departments in Sandton owe for municipal services.
Joburg Mayor Mpho Phalatse and City officials embarked on a revenue-collection operation on Wednesday, targeting ratepayers that have outstanding municipal accounts.
The mayor and her team started at the SALA house in Friedman Drive where municipal pension funds are managed.
The owners owe the city R7.4 million.
While the owner was explaining that they are waiting for letters from their lawyers to settle the debt, Phalatse’s team shut down the water.
“We need to recover monies owed to the City so we can service our residents,” she said.
The city is aiming to recover at least R38 billion.
“Our revenue department has tried everything. People aren’t paying, we send out pre-termination notices, and people don’t respond. We are supposed to cut off Sandton City at the end of the month and we hope they settle this before we do,” said Phalatse.
Sandton City alone owes the City R168 million.
Phalatse said they want business to recover from the pandemic but are aware that without paying their debt, the municipality cannot deliver services.
“If the system is not working and someone somewhere is not paying the whole system will break down. That is why we have no option at this point but to cut off those delinquent rate payers. We’ve engaged property owners and they claim to be paying to management companies and the money is not filtering to the municipality, but there has been enough time for them to pay up.”
Phalatse added that a pre-termination notice had been issued to Sandton City earlier in February to settle their debt of around R168 million. Should Sandton City fail to pay by the end of February, the City will take action.