Pretoria - The City of Tshwane has been asked to prioritise scrapping illegally estimated bills and placing homeowners who cannot afford rates on the indigent list instead of trying to offer an amnesty programme that may not work.
Chairperson of the Lotus Gardens, Atteridgeville and Saulsville Civic Association, Tshepo Mahlangu, criticised the City’s amnesty programme launched to reconnect the services of homeowners and business that had made illegal connections.
The programme was launched by the City for those homeowners and businesses that had tampered with meters or had paid bribes to have their debts “go away” and be reconnected after they were disconnected for failing to pay for their water and electricity bills.
The City has been emphasising the importance of collecting revenue as it needs it to pay its suppliers such as Eskom and Rand Water, and for services such as road maintenance.
Tshwane has been disconnecting defaulters and removing illegal connections in informal settlements.
Mahlangu said one of the problems with the amnesty programme was it also required people to sign and submit affidavits detailing how the illegal connection or tampering was carried out, who were the individuals who did it, and how the bribe was paid to them.
“This will cause serious conflict between people. Why should residents expose themselves to such risks? This is serious stuff. This is actually the City’s fault because it is their own municipal officials who have been going around reconnecting people illegally and selling circuit breakers in informal settlement.
“The City must stop declaring war against ratepayers. When are they going to scrap the illegally estimated bills?
“The City must deliver services. People struggling to make ends meet are still waiting to be placed on the indigent list; they have not solved that problem,” he said.
Pretoria News