Councillors owe millions

Matthew Savides | 15 June, 2015 00:30

This comes in the wake of weekend reports that newly appointed Nelson Mandela Bay mayor Danny Jordaan has not been billed for electricity at his Port Elizabeth property since 2007. File photo

Image by: Sunday Times

They are meant to be role models and upstanding citizens, but councillors across the country owe their municipalities millions in unpaid rates and services.

According to the latest figures, the councillors in just five of South Africa's eight metropolitan municipalities owed more than R844000.

 Johannesburg is owed R349000; Cape Town R208000; Mangaung R198000; eThekwini R74000 and EkurhuleniR15000, according to the municipalities' annual reports.

However, according to local government experts this is just the tip of the iceberg. For example, in KwaZulu-Natal alone, councillors owe more than R1.5-million.

This comes in the wake of weekend reports that newly appointed Nelson Mandela Bay mayor Danny Jordaan has not been billed for electricity at his Port Elizabeth property since 2007.

Daniel Netnow, a DA councillor in Johannesburg, owed the municipality more than R312000 by the end of the 2014 financial year.

Asked if his bill had been settled Netnow said in an SMS : "Call the city, they will let you know we came to a prosper agreement. If u interested in the subject of people been behind with Bills, why not investigate all cllrs [councillors] and everybody working for the government [sic]."

Another DA councillor, Bulelwa Madikane, owed R208000 to the City of Cape Town as of June 2014.

Madikane did not return a call and text message seeking comment, and it was unclear whether the debt has been settled.

Kevin Mileham, DA spokesman on cooperative governance and traditional affairs, said more and more councillors were not paying their accounts, something he had noticed when he was a councillor at the East London-based Buffalo City Municipality.

"It's prevalent across the country. It sends a message that they [councillors] have no respect for the institution [their local municipality].

"It also sends a message to ratepayers that they don't have to pay," said Mileham.

 (AVP beklemtoning)