Cape Town - The Knysna Municipality has warned residents who are in arrears with the municipality, that they may have their electricity disconnected or water restricted.
The municipality announced that it is owed R326 million by ratepayers whose accounts are in arrears of 60 days or more.
Of R123.9 million owed, R82 million is owed by businesses and R24 million by private residential clients.
Newly-appointed Knysna municipal manager, Ombali Phineas Sebola, said he has contacted and engaged with a number of their top debtors, and urged them to urgently pay their debt.
“The combined debt of the top 100 offenders across ratepayer categories amounts to R123.9 million, nearly 40% of the total amount owed.
“We are taking serious steps in recovering this debt, as these funds are critical to delivering services to all people of greater Knysna.
“To put the magnitude of this deficit in perspective, the total amount in arrears is nearly three times our entire capital budget, which is R124.2 million.
“The top debtors owe nearly this amount on their accounts alone.
“To put it simply, if these outstanding funds are not paid, we cannot initiate projects or deliver services that this money would have paid for,” Sebola said.
“You may think that your payment won’t make a difference, but I can assure you that it all adds up.
“If you don’t pay your account, you are hampering service delivery throughout the entire municipal area and having a negative impact on our collective community.
“I can confirm that some debtors have already made payments, and thank you to those account holders who regularly pay their accounts in full. Your commitment to your responsibilities allows us to fulfil ours.”
Knysna United chairperson, Ralph Stander, however, said the municipality should rather recover “all the money stolen from corruption”.
“They should recover the millions that were lost with the water meter tenders and the wheelie bin tenders. In any case, all the metering and all the invoices for electricity and water is faulty, people are being billed thousands of rands whereas people are paying on a monthly basis and they still get invoices for huge amounts. We have seen the municipality’s statement and we are totally unhappy, ” Stander said.
Cape Times