Durban — “There are unfair practices when the eThekwini Municipality institutes legal action against ratepayers who are in arrears for their accounts.”
This was the view of IFP Proportional Representative (PR) councillor Jonathan Annipen when the city reported before a full council meeting that it was owed more than R726 million by government departments and R13 billion by residents.
Annipen said he had been bombarded by complaints recently where legal action had been instituted by the city against customers.
“I noted significant anomalies in these actions and would like to know if there is a set criteria used by the city as to ‘at what point’ does the city decide to take such action?” Annipen wrote in an email to the city management.
He said those “targeted” by the municipality were indigent customers and had made an application for indigent support. He said that unfortunately, due to delays on the part of the city, many of these applications had not been processed.
“Some of them are senior citizens and have nothing but their homes to their name. Is the city contemplating taking that away from them and putting them out on the street? Is that how we intend becoming a ‘caring and liveable city’”? Annipen asked.
ANC PR councillor Nokuthula Yolenda Young said the eThekwini Municipality handed over the debtors who were outstanding for more than 120 days.
Young said the value of the debt was also taken into account because the municipality did not want to burden the customers who owed small amounts, with high legal bills.
Young said properties that were below R350 000 were not handed over because they fell under the poorest of the poor. Young said the total amount owed by residents of eThekwini was the biggest portion of the total outstanding amount as of June 30.
In response to the total amount of debt owed to the city by government departments, Young said it was R726m as of 30 June and this amount was inclusive of current charges of R110m.
Young said the total amount owed by national government departments as of June was R725.7m – Public Works R23.4m; Water Affairs R28.7m; Defence R3.6m; and Correctional Services R5.4m.
The debt of provincial government departments totalled R428m.
Education, section 21 schools, R257.2m; Public Works R25.6m; Health R29.9m; Human Settlement R48.2m; TVET Colleges R1.7m; Education, section 20 schools R59.2m; Transport R3.5m; Social Welfare R1.7m; Office of the Premier R16 156; Arts and Culture R167 657; Cogta R330 686; Economic Development R148 832; and Agriculture R3 529.
The total owed by parastatals amounted to R214m as of 30 June and that was inclusive of current charges of R127m. These parastatals include Transnet, Metrorail, airports, Prasa, Ithala, Telkom, SABC, Eskom, Petronet, SAA, Umgeni Water and Dube Tradeport.
Annipen asked if the municipality instituted action (by way of combined summons) against any institution.
Young said the city had disconnected a number of these institutions several times which was the first step when the account got into arrears.
“The city has not instituted legal action by way of combined summons because there is an act that governs the relationship between government institutions, which is the Intergovernmental Relations Framework Act 13 of 2005. This act is prescriptive in terms of interrelations that the municipality has to go through declaring a dispute before legal action is taken. The municipality has taken those steps in some of the organisations,” Young said.
Young said combined summons had been served to 309 residential customers, out of 550. These customers owed amounts above R50 000. Young said for the debt to be irrecoverable, every file had to be scrutinised.
Daily News