An Emfuleni councillor who has admitted to not paying for services for seven years has blamed the embattled municipality for the undue benefit, saying this was also partly because he did not have a title deed.
Andries Lekeletsane, an ANC ward 39 councillor since 2016, has been exempt from paying municipal services and instead lives off a ratepayers’ subsidy. According to his municipal account, Lekeletsane received an indigent subsidy for water services and waste collection.
Emfuleni is one of the poorly run municipalities in Gauteng which has been struggling to collect revenue from customers and has been indebted to both Eskom and Rand Water. In December Eskom said Emfuleni owed R5.7bn resulting in its bank accounts being frozen.
Lekeletsane insisted yesterday that he never applied to be placed on the indigent register.
He said he moved into his RDP house in Evaton, south of Joburg, in 2008 and that most residents in the area do not have title deeds which are linked to municipal accounts. He said when he moved into the area most residents did not pay for municipal services. He became a councillor in 2016 earning about R40,000 a month.
“I have not been paying for any services, but the issue has to do with us not having title deeds,” admitted Lekeletsane, saying he was not the only councillor not paying for services.
“I took this up with the municipality’s rates and taxes about a month ago. I gave them my ID number and asked them to check and I was told that I am not linked to any address in the system and that I do not have an account with the municipality. I was also told that this was the case because we do not have title deeds to our homes.
“As a councillor I then took this to the speaker’s office to inform them about this, because I would like to pay for the services. The speaker committed to giving us feedback on the issue, but they know about this problem. I say this because there are councillors in the same situation.”
To qualify as an indigent to access free services one has to register with the council. But Lekeletsane said he never applied to be placed on the register.
“The processes are clear, each year one has to renew to stay on the programme and reapply. I have never applied for a renewal.”
Municipality spokesperson Makhosonke Sangweni, said the municipality had no knowledge that Lekeletsane was benefiting from the indigent programme, and needed verification from the council speaker’s office.
“The programme is for the poor and unemployed residents and those who work but [are] not being paid well like security guards, domestic workers who earn R3,500 or less per month, but varies...to be on the programme you apply and the application is assessed by different departments and recommended for approval based on the facts and assessment.”
He said the programme benefits about 45,000 people but that the numbers have been growing significantly.
DA leader at the municipality Kingsol Chabalala said they brought the matter to the speaker’s attention last month, but had not received any feedback.
“This is after the matter was referred to us by members of the community in Ward 39. We are not aware of how he qualified to be an indigent as councillors are not supposed to be indigent as they earn more than enough to be able to pay for rates and taxes.
“The actions of a councillor are criminal as this equates to fraud and this is demonstration of how those who are running the municipality are incompetent,” said Chabalala.
sibiyan@sowetan.co.za
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.