Pretoria – Tshwane Mayor Randall Williams says the radical step, characterised by the publicised switching off of utilities at government departments, diplomatic missions and businesses across the city was not a publicity stunt, but a bold intervention necessitated by the bloated R17 billion debtors book.
“There was an unprecedented amount of news coverage and interest in our bold and aggressive #TshwaneYaTima (Tshwane switches off) revenue-collection campaign which sought to disconnect services to defaulting clients who run up high service bills and fail to pay the City.
“The reality is that our debtor’s book has increased to over R17 billion and we simply could not continue to stand by and allow debt owed to the City to increase unabated while clients continue to consume services without paying,” he said.
Williams said the R17 billion debt owed to the city includes R1.3 billion that is owed by government departments and embassies, R4 billion by businesses in Tshwane and R8 billion by residential customers.
“The (#TshwaneYaTima) campaign has proved to be a step in the right direction to reinstitute a culture of paying for services rendered. So far, we have collected more than R700 million above our projections. This comes after we have disconnected more than 1 000 accounts, including government departments and businesses.
“We are pushing ahead with the campaign and have already disconnected some residential customers. The message we are driving here is clear: pay for services rendered. As a municipality, we purchase electricity and water in bulk, meaning that by the time we distribute these services, we have already paid on our side. If we then fail to receive revenue back for services rendered, it leaves us with shortfalls in our finances,” he said.
Williams said in addition to delivering services, the city must honour its commitments to creditors such as Eskom, Rand Water, municipal employees and other existing contractual obligations.
He said the aggressive campaign is not designed to embarrass clients, nor is it politically motivated.
“The #TshwaneYaTima campaign is born out of necessity to restore the city’s financial health. The culture of non-payment for services had to be tackled head-on. For this collection campaign to succeed, we had to be unapologetic in our efforts to recoup what is due to the city,” said Williams.
The Tshwane mayor said some clients have taken the city to court “but they found us prepared”.
IOL