City of Joburg to blacklist recalcitrant non-payers

Stubborn Johannesburg residents and businesses that refuse to pay their outstanding municipal accounts could face blacklisting as the City of Johannesburg takes an aggressive approach in recouping billions in debts.

Thousands of defaulting residential and business properties will be targeted by the newly established specialised revenue collection team with the aim of recouping more than R40bn in municipal debt.

The city has growing debt exceeding R52bn, and to reduce this, aggressive credit control campaigns have been established.

Group CFO Tebogo Moraka said the city had no choice but to refer defaulting customers who had made no arrangements for payment to the collection team to be processed for blacklisting.

“Business and domestic customers who perpetually default will soon be targeted by our specialised team as part of the city’s aggressive credit control campaign. These are individual businesses and households whose municipal accounts are in arrears by more than 61 days. These steps are necessary as the city also has bills to pay, like Eskom and Rand Water,” he said.

The city will be going after those who blatantly refuse to respond to pleas to settle their accounts over a long period. These customers have gone through all the city’s processes to get them to pay but all communication has been ignored, Moraka said.

“The city would have issued them with pre-termination notices informing them of the outstanding arrears and giving them enough time — 14 days — to approach the city and settle their debt. The city would have also sent them final demand notices, sent SMSs and called them to remind them to urgently settle their accounts, without success.”

The campaign will also target illegal connection of services, and the city will not hesitate to lay criminal charges or make arrests, impose hefty fines and immediately disconnect illegal electricity and water connections.

“All property owners who are struggling to service their accounts for various reasons should approach the city to avoid being cut off by making payment arrangement and signing an acknowledgement of debt,” said Moraka.

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