Five municipalities in the North West stand to benefit from the revenue enhancement and debt collection project which will be spearheaded by the North West Department of Local Government and Traditional Affairs.
Mafikeng, Tswaing, Lekwa Teemane, Ventersdorp and Naledi Local Municipalities will for the next six months, benefit from this project which is intended to assist on the following:
- Establishing functional credit control and debt collection units
- Develop accurate and reliable consumer database
- Accurate and credible meter readings processes
- Indigent registration and management
- Recovery of debt and credit control
- Put in place effective and efficient billing systems
- Implementation of property rates and tariff policies.
The target is those municipalities that had either been placed under Section 139 (1) (b) of the Constitution or under Section 106 investigations of the Municipal Systems Act. The constitution makes provision for the provincial government to intervene where the municipality fails to fulfil its constitutional mandate.
The department has, together with the Provincial Treasury, developed a turn-around plan which will assist the five prioritised municipalities to comply with Section 64 of the Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA) which commands municipalities to put in place effective revenue collection system and Chapter 9 of the Municipal Systems Act which stipulates that debt collection is a responsibility of municipalities.
Part of the project will include promoting a culture of payment for services amongst community members, establish alternative customer pay points to make it easier for consumers to pay their accounts as well as establish a customer care desk/call centre.
Enquires:
Ditshaba Makhate
Cell: 082 359 6970
