The Tshwane municipality is currently pursuing residents who have perennially defaulted on municipal services payments, now standing at a staggering R6-billion, Tshwane Mayor Kgosientso Ramokgopa said on Wednesday.

“There are those we are going to pursue aggressively. They require a hardened approach. It becomes more and more difficult to collect that money when it goes over 180 days. People might be deceased, relocated or they simply don’t want to pay. Those ones, you don’t need to remind them, they know that they have not paid for three months,” Ramokgopa said at the launch of the Mmogo Re A Gola (together we grow) programme.

He said the introduction of prepaid services would save the municipality from its burgeoning debtors book. Ramokgopa said the non-payment of municipal bills payments had a direct adverse impact on service delivery.

“Our debtors book is just above R6-billion. If that R6-billion was a budget for a municipality, that would be one of the top ten municipalities. It is significantly higher than budgets of secondary municipalities. That is how much we are being owed,” Ramokgopa said.

The municipal programme is part of the city’s drive to bring revenue awareness and education campaigns aimed at encouraging residents take responsibility for the critical services provided to them by the municipality.

“Our projection is that if we don’t initiate interventions of this nature, it (debtors book) is likely going to grow. The trend has been that it has been growing, and growing exponentially. We want to attenuate the growth so that it doesn’t grow that exponentially,” said Ramokgopa.

“It’s almost a given that it is going to grow but with the roll-out of the prepaid meters, I think we are going to bring it down significantly. That is the challenge we are having.”

Ramokgopa said the municipality’s outbound call centre continued to phone residents, reminding them to settle their arrears.

“It is important to know our obligations. We buy bulk electricity from Eskom and bulk water from Rand Water. We don’t get it for free. If we are delinquent and we fail to pay, they are going to disconnect us. We have seen municipalities where Eskom is disconnecting. That is going to affect our 3, 2 million people of Tshwane,” said Ramokgopa.

“We need to make an attempt to collect. You know already that big metros are in serious problems because of the burgeoning debtors book. Eskom has announced tariff increases, Rand Water will tell us – that is going to hit the households very hard. More people are going to find it difficult to pay for services. When you have your monthly priorities, before buying airtime, make sure you pay for water and electricity you are consuming.”

Tshwane rewarded its “star payers” who were at the Mogo Re A Gola programme launch.

Ramokgopa said building the much needed recreational parks, houses, roads and transport and clinics could only be a reality when the municipality had money in the bank.

CFO Umar Banda said residents needed to be reminded that they should pay because they used municipal services voluntarily.

“At the end of the day, when you consume water and electricity, it is a voluntary consumption. No one forces you to watch TV, or to bath or cook. You should take the responsibility to pay for the water and electricity that you have used,” said Banda.

He said fortunately, around 95% of Tshwane residents paid their monthly bills.

Apart from paying for municipal services, the Mmogo Re A Gola programme drives home a message of active citizenry, urging residents of Tshwane to assist the municipality preserve the city’s infrastructure by reporting burst water pipes, illegal electricity connections, broken street lights and any other interruptions.