Municipal officials in debt
2011-03-17
Anne Kruger
BY law, no municipal councillor or officials may be in arrears for more than 90 days. But in a recent circular of the Drakenstein Municipality, manager Dr Sidima Kabanyane, encouraged Drakenstein employees and councillors with municipal arrears “for more than 90 days”, to urgently settle their accounts by no later than 31 May. The Municipality is waging a campaign against defaulters through the IDP/budget meetings currently being held in each ward, offering a 50% discount on debts dating from before 1 July last year for accounts settled before the end of May this year. Kabanyane also offers this 50% “amnesty” to employees, including councillors, while the Municipality is supposed to discipline those employees with outstanding debt of 90 days or more, and is supposed to deduct the debt from their salaries. DA member of parliament Deetlefs du Toit expressed his dismay over the arrears, pointing out that any DA councillors with debt will not be allowed to stand for re-election. “Every rand written off by the Municipality, is paid by the ratepayers. To offer a discount on debt to employees and councillors is an insult to ratepayers who must foot the bill” (see letter on page 6). Executive councillor JT Basson (ANC) responded that councillors and employees had “the same rights as ordinary ratepayers” to benefit from the 50% discount offered on old debt from the previous financial year. “However, councillors and employees with current debt must pay up, otherwise it will be deducted from their salaries.” In September last year, Paarl Post reported that seventeen of the 61 town councillors were in debt to the tune of R54 000 on their municipal accounts - the highest councillors’ debt in the province. This became clear following a parliamentary question on how much was owed by councillors in the province. Municipal spokesperson May Carolissen said at the time that the Municipality planned to start deducting the monies owed from the councillors’ salaries on a monthly basis. “The Municipality is considering making arrangements so that all councillors’ municipal bills be deducted from their salaries in future.” This week the municipality’s financial chief, Cavin Petersen, said that all but one councillor had paid their accounts (one is disputing his bill). “Many officials pay the bills of their relatives, and some have fallen into arrears. We are in the process of unbundling these accounts.”
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