Naziziphiwo Buso
Nelson Mandela Bay’s revenue collection rate has declined to 56.2% from a target of 79%.
This shocking revelation was made by the Mayoral Committee Member for the Budget and Treasury Directorate, Kabelo Mogatosi.
Mogatosi, who has been at the helm for a month, said the increasing debt on rates and services was putting pressure on municipal cash reserves.
The breakdown of revenue collection in the past couple of months:
| Month: | Revenue Collection |
| December 2022 | 60.7% |
| January 2023 | 58.6% |
| February | 57.2% |
| March | 56.2% |
He said the total income in the first eight months of the financial period amounts to R6.7bn.
“This accounts for 65.7% of the total annual budget amount of R10.2bn. The negative variance to date (R100m) is due to, in the main, a decline in business payments,” Mogatosi said.
However, he said that the biggest debt culprits were domestic residents who made up 93% of the debt increment from about R7 billion to R10 billion between 1 July 2022 to 31 March 2023.
He blamed tampering for this increment.
On businesses, Mogatosi implored that business approach the municipality to make arrangements to pay.
He revealed that their debt in June 2022 was R1.8 billion compared to the R1.9 billion rand at the end of March this year.
He said however the municipality has embarked on harsh campaigns to reduce the money owed to it by businesses.
Mogatosi said 15 businesses in the Kariega area owe R12.5 million for rates and services and will be disconnected on Thursday.
Speaking on other interventions he said they had activated a meter reading “war room” to analyse the estimation patterns to assist in the identification and investigations of high consumption readings.
Meanwhile, the Director of Revenue Management & Customer Care, Mbuzeli Nogqala, said the cash coming into the municipality is declining and the implementation of the higher, D-water tariff in 2020, did not do revenue collection any favours.
The higher tariffs were imposed as a punitive tariff for high water users.
Nogqala said the municipality was able to continue operating because it has cash reserves for 16 to 18 months, but using this money is not viable in the long run.
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