It is not surprising that the City of Johannesburg entity that provides rental homes to low-income earners says the Covid-19 pandemic and job losses have negatively impacted its revenue.
Its recent annual report shows that nearly half of the people living in Johannesburg Social Housing Company (Joshco)’s properties across the city do not pay rent and are in arrears of more than R250m. The cause of this, according to the company, is job losses and loss of income.
Joshco, whose mandate is to provide and manage social rental accommodation that services low-income residents, says it has now appointed debt collectors at a cost to recoup the monies it is owed.
The nonpayment of rental means that services such as water and refuse collection, which are included in the subsidised monthly rent are being provided for free.
A closer look at the reasons cited in the entity’s annual report on the challenges it is facing in collecting rent uncovered another dimension — the culture of nonpayment for government services.
According to Joshco spokesperson there are tenants who are working but refuse to pay because they believe that “this is a government-owned property and there is no need to make any payment”.
This culture is very much intertwined with the politics of promises that the government will provide people with things for free. We have come to know this with the historical Soweto electricity nonpayment problem where residents say they were promised free electricity.
Earlier this year, Gauteng premier Panyaza Lesufi told the same residents who collectively owe Eskom an estimated R5bn that their debt could be cancelled. This alone will have done no good to encourage any other citizen elsewhere in the province to see the need to pay for government services.
Some tenants at Joburg properties have attributed their reasons for nonpayment of rent to a promise apparently made to them that they were renting to own after five years. It is not inconceivable that this promise too was made by politicians who used social housing to campaign for votes as the city has denied such agreement exists.
We believe that those who can afford to pay must be encouraged to do so while those who cannot should be registered as indigents.
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