CITY OF JOHANNESBURG NEEDS TO SERVE ITS RESIDENTS EFFICIENTLY AND NOT BECOME A HINDERANCE TO BUSINESS AND IT'S RESIDENTS

As a response to the liquidity crisis facing the City of Johannesburg, the City's Revenue department has embarked on a vigorous campaign to cut off the services of delinquent payers. Earlier this week the DA issued a media release indicating that we supported all legal means by the City to improve its worryingly low levels of revenue collection.

Unfortunately the experience of some DA councillors has been that the City has not been following correct procedures when it comes to disconnections of residents. A case in point is a resident of Cllr Marian Kemp who was asked to allow access to his property to disconnect his electricity, at the same time officials served the resident with a disconnection notice. This notice should provide a resident with 14 days to rectify the account before disconnection. Not providing a resident with the requisite notice creates hardship and is illegal. The DA calls upon the City to desist from such illegal acts immediately and for its employees to follow proper due process.

A problem that is frequently overlooked by the City when embarking on such disconnection campaigns is that an efficient and properly capacitated query resolution team who can respond immediately to queries needs to be in place. Without this, many residents who have valid disputes with the City will be disconnected, creating hardships for many who possibly don't owe money in the first place. A case in point is that of Charlon Dry Cleaners who first noted a query with the City 19 months ago regarding inflated electricity bills. Many attempts to solve the problem were unsuccessful and the business then reverted to prepaid metering for electricity. City officials arrived to disconnect the business on 22 October. When the problem of the unresolved outstanding query was pointed out Charlon were reconnected, and have now in the last few days been threatened with disconnection again. Johannesburg is Africa's economic hub and one of the main aims of the City should be to create an enabling environment for business to assist with economic growth in the Region, not putting roadblocks in the way of small businesses such as Charlon Dry Cleaners.

Residents too have not been exempt. Take the case of Mr Quinton Phillips, as representative of one of the 302 emails received yesterday by the DA query resolution team. Mr Phillips just requires the City to read the correct water meter on his property and to stop sending him inflated Bills which are now hindering him in the transfer of a property. He fears an unnecessary blacklisting because of the non payment of a debt he does not owe and the possibly refusal of a housing bond on his property. This is all because the City makes it impossible for many residents to solve simple queries.

The ANC's response to many of these problems through Finance MMC,  Cllr Makhubo is simply to deny that such problems actually exist, while making a few half hearted attempts to solve the crisis.

National Treasury has indicated its deep concern about Johannesburg's liquidity position. Treasury's requirement is that all Metros hold 3 months in cash and cash instruments to ensure that they can meet their short term liquidity requirements and pay creditors. While the City of Cape Town meets these criteria, Johannesburg only has 12 days worth of cash cover. Any unforeseen crisis in the City could result in them not being able to pay their creditors.

The reason why the City is facing a liquidity crisis is that it is simply not collecting enough revenue. This is due largely to a dysfunctional Revenue department than cannot arrange for a correct reading on Quinton Phillips water meter or who after 19 months still cannot resolve Charlon Dry Cleaners Billing Query. These are merely two examples of thousands of other frustrated residents.

The DA calls upon the City of Johannesburg with the greatest urgency to ensure a correctly functioning Revenue department and to establish a specialised team to collect the R13 billion in outstanding debt owing to the City by all it residents. We call on the City to follow correct procedure when dealing with residents and to ensure that a properly constituted resolution team is in place to ensure residents are not unfairly disconnected and suffer undue hardships at the hands of the City.

The DA believes the city must take practical step:

• Firstly, fix the billing system (as per our three-step plan) to improve revenue collection.
• Promote transparency by reporting financial stats on time and accurately. (Just as we've done in Cape Town.)
• Hold officials accountable. If people overspend budgets, or waste money, then there must be consequences.
• Deal with the budget deviations which policy is unclear on.
• Put the proper financial management processes in place and hire the right people.

Statement issued by Cllr Patrick Atkinson. DA Shadow MMC Finance: City of Johannesburg  and Cllr Mmusi Maimane, Leader of the DA City of Johannesburg Caucus, November 9 2011

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