THE Bergrivier municipality has dismissed as “false rumours” claims it was were involved in letters issued by lawyers to residents in arrears with their municipal accounts.
Among the residents who received the lawyer’s letter was Marilyn Botha. The letter sent last week was from lawyers Swemmer and Levi.
It was sent to Botha’s lifelong partner, saying he must appear in court on May 24 for a municipality account. “We are unemployed so the letter was a big shock. We catch fish so we can make a living, otherwise we look starvation in the eye.”
The letter states should they fail to make an arrangement to pay the debt and cost, “the judgment creditor may take legal action against them”.
But the municipality’s municipal manager, Hanlie Linde, said this was a separate case.
“It is part of normal debt collection processes at Bergrivier Municipality and is normal procedure in local government in the Western Cape and in South Africa. It is in accordance with the Local Government: Municipal Finance Management Act, 2003 (Act 56 of 2003), Council’s Credit Control Policy and By-law. This case was handed over to our attorneys for debt collection in 2015 as a last resort and after all internal collection efforts were exhausted,” Linde said.
A statement issued by the office of Mayor Ray van Rooy on Monday rubbished the “false rumours” doing the rounds on social media.
“The current rumour involves the issuing of lawyer’s letters to all clients of Bergrivier Municipality who are in arrears with their municipal accounts. The municipality can confirm that no legal action has been taken and neither were lawyer’s letters issued to any of our clients, even if you (as a client) have been or are in arrears with your account.”
The Good Party’s Sammy Claassen said: “We are shocked that Bergrivier Municipality was issuing such a statement in trying to cover up its legal instructions or actions against poor families who are left traumatised by lawyers letters and demands that threatens to take possession of their only belongings should they fail to settle these municipal bills.
“We condemn the lies and misleading statement issued by Bergrivier Municipality whilst the true facts and evidence or legal paper were served on some of our people in Noordhoek, Veldrif,” he said.