Joburg councillors over R2m in arrears for rates and taxes

Councillors owe the City of Johannesburg more than R2m in combined debt for unpaid rates and taxes on their properties.

At least 25 councillors currently serving in council owe the municipality just over R1.6m while the ones who served in the previous administration before the November 2021 elections owe about R1m as of March 2022.

The shocking revelation was an item in the oversight committee on the city's legislature’s report in a council agenda tabled at the last council meeting where councillors also approved their salary increases for the 2022/2023 financial year.

Since January, the amount owed to the city by its public servants has gone down but had not dropped below the R1m mark.

In January, 26 councillors owed R1,744,963,88 and then in February R1,674,768,93 was owed by 31 councillors, with the last recorded amount being the R1,060,702,81 owed by the 25 councillors as at the end of March.

According to the Municipal Structures Act, it is illegal for councillors or any municipal employee to owe the institution they are working for. In terms of section 12A of the Municipal Systems Act, a councillor may not be in arrears for rates and service charges for more than 90 days.

Councillors who are in arrears to the city for the above do not only contravene the code of conduct but also act illegally by contravening the act.

While the city has a total of 270 councillors serving in council, only 114 have registered their municipal accounts with the city.

This is a sharp decline to the 209 that had registered their accounts in October 2021 during quarter 2 of the 2021/2022 financial year.

The report did not give the names of the councillors despite, previously, businesses that had owed the city being named on television and the council's social media platforms when they had their services cut off for being in arrears.

According to the report, the annual financial statement to the auditor-general will reflect the names of the defaulters.

Council chief whip Tyrel Meyers said some of the arrears were a result of councillors who prior to the new administration were unemployed and had no form of income.

“We have started a new term of office and there are some individuals that have now become councillors and already sit with arrears likely because they had no income prior to their election as a councillor.

“The office has taken steps to address this and get councillors compliant, some have also been debited for these arrears and we have also engaged with the respective whips on the matter to be attended to. We are taking action.”

EFF regional chair Sepetlele Raseruthe said the EFF had no defaulters.

“The EFF is always up to standard. We had one councillor who owed in 2016 but that's when we entered council.

“When you owe you must pay. We don't agree with switching off people's services, whether you're a councillor or not. We’ll never allow that. Our people should continue receiving services because these are basic services.”

Newly sworn-in councillor and the ANC's regional chairperson Dada Morero said paying of services was mandatory for all councillors.

Morero said he could not say whether or not ANC councillors owed money because “I was only sworn in today”.

“We encourage ANC councillors to enter into staff deduction with the city, so that by the time allowances are paid their rates are paid, that way they don’t fall short.”

Meanwhile, residents' associations as well as civic organisations have slammed councillors over nonpayment of rates, saying equal treatment should apply.

Joy Govender from the Lenasia South Residents Association said: “I don’t condone lawlessness, I don’t condone people not paying for services. At the end of the day as a resident of ward 120 I pay my bills. Why should they [councillors] walk away? If they don’t pay their services they should be disconnected as well. What is good for the councillor is good for me too.”

Sanco regional secretary Mpho Sesedinyane said the councillors who are owing the city money can only be forgiven if they are new in their jobs.

“As leaders they have responsibility to pay for services. Those who are new might be coming out of tough times caused by the pandemic. As for those who have been in council for many years, we cannot have an excuse for them. They must be brought to a point where they are able to pay their bills.

“We are not happy with the approach to simply take money from the salaries of the councillors who have just joined the council. The city should be in a position of engaging councillors and ensuring that they pay. If a councillor is not coming to the party, then you can opt for any other tactic,” Sesedinyane said.

Coalition requests an audit of all employees

Spokesperson in the speaker’s office Angela Barnes declined to reveal the names of the defaulting councillors, saying their names were confidential.

“As with individual residents, the details of the councillors in the City of Johannesburg (CoJ) who are in arrears are confidential.”

This is despite the fact that early this year, the city went on a campaign cutting off services to defaulting businesses and residential properties and splashed those pictures on its social media platforms.

Barnes said the coalition had proactively requested an audit of all employee groupings to ensure that accounts were up to date. “Anyone found to be in breach of the CoJ credit control policy was subjected to its control measures.”

She said anyone who owed the city money for over 90 days was considered to be in arrears. Barnes said a new report was in the process of going to the oversight committee in the legislature which showed the number of councillors in arrears and the amount owed to the city had been significant.

Questions sent to the city which were not answered include the following: