Mayors and municipal officials that do not pay accounts for water and other services must be punished

6 December 2017

The time has come for the salaries of mayors and municipal managers to be withheld at municipalities where water and other services are cut off because of the non-payment of accounts, says Dr Peter Groenewald, leader of the FF Plus. 

According to Dr Groenewald, it is utterly unfair that the residents that dutifully pay for their water and other services are being punished alongside the non-payers and senior officials that are incompetent and thus unable to do their job.

According to the Department’s statistics, the outstanding water debt of municipalities across South Africa amount to nearly R6,8 billion and the Minister of Water and Sanitation, Nomvula Mokonyane, is threatening to cut off the water supply to these municipalities. 

Dr Groenewald says that the very same situation played out earlier this year with load-shedding when the municipalities’ total outstanding debt for services amounted to more than R110 billion. He adds that the government failed to do anything about it.

“The ANC must accept full responsibility for the situation seeing as they were the ones who started the culture of non-payment and who allowed service delivery to go downhill due to the appointment of incompetent officials.

“I wrote a letter to Minister Mokonyane requesting her to reconsider the Department’s plan to cut off the water supply to the municipalities that have fallen behind with their payments seeing as it would not only be unfair towards the residents that do in fact pay their accounts, but it would also be unconstitutional.

“If the salaries of the relevant mayors and municipal managers are withheld, they will start doing their jobs to ensure that service fees are collected and that service providers are paid,” says Dr Groenewald.

Issued by Pieter Groenewald, FF Plus Leader, 6 December 2017