Ratepayers raised concerns over the city’s growing debt in the last three years, questioning the municipality’s billing system as one of the main contributors. During a full council meeting on Friday, 28 February, the report revealed that over R32 billion was recorded for bad debt. Additionally, bad debt had been on the increase by 2 percent for the last three years.
Bluff Ratepayers and Residents Association (BRRA) chairperson, Norman Gilbert, said they would like to know how much of the debt is due to the city’s estimated billing. He said: “This process has led to residents, particularly pensioners, receiving exorbitant bills they’re unable to pay. A staggering 40% of the debt is related to water services, which isn’t surprising given that there are entire suburbs where residents have gone for days, weeks and even months without receiving any water yet are still being billed due to estimated billing. Naturally, they’re disputing these charges and refusing to pay.”
Gilbert said he had spoken to numerous residents who’ve complained about the municipality’s staff attitude when seeking clarification on these high accounts. Instead of assistance, they’re told to pay a deposit and sign an acknowledgement of debt, even when they genuinely believe they don’t owe the money. The ultimatum is clear: sign or face disconnection.
“We’re worried that a significant portion of this debt stems from the failures of estimated billing, which will need to be reversed. This issue highlights the need for a more transparent and accurate billing system to prevent such disputes and ensure residents are charged fairly,” Gilbert said.
In its report, the eThekwini Municipality highlighted that possible reasons why the debt continued to increase included: dissatisfaction with service delivery; natural disasters; the declining state of the economy and rising economy; and the effect of Covid-19 and national lockdown.
In the same report, the city said water made up 40 percent of total debt, while property rates and electricity are 25 percent and 14 percent respectively. The remaining debt is made up of other, wastewater, waste management, Interest and property rental. Household debt, which mainly includes individual/residential customer accounts remains high at R25.9 Billion – contributing to 73% of the total debtors. “This reflects growth in the number of households who are struggling to pay their Municipal bills. Commercial debt includes business accounts which amount to R7.7 billion; and Organs of State include government and parastatals accounts which amount to R1.6 Billion,” the city said. Although still high, government debt between October to December 2024 had improved by almost R200 million (from R1 544 925 437 to R1 397 147 167).
In terms of collection, the city said challenges included: unaffordability by the customers to pay for services; water and electricity metre reading queries; and high billing charges which results in disputes/queries and delayed payments.
The city said committee recommended that council noted the report on debt collection as well as the performance of the Revenue Management Unit with regards to the management of the Council’s debtors’ book for the month of December 2024, and that Council further notes the Debt Collection and Debt Reduction Strategies developed by the Revenue Management Unit are being implemented on an ongoing basis, with emphasis being put on the need to strengthen measures to collect long outstanding debts.
