The civic organisation Lotus Gardens, Atteridgeville and Saulsville Civic Association (Lasca) has welcomed the City of Tshwane’s proposed debt-relief programme that could potentially see the municipality scrapping up to R10 billion in municipal debt.

The organisation has been at the forefront of a campaign calling for the City to write off their outstanding municipal bills on the grounds that they are mostly inaccurate and fabricated.

Its leader, Tshepo Mahlangu, expressed excitement after the council on Thursday approved a report aiming to address the City’s R30bn debtors’ book.

The City's debtors include residential customers owing a total debt of R15,833bn, followed by business customers, who owe R6,746bn.

Part of the report read: “Analysis of the proposal for residential accounts as of 30 November 2024 indicates that should customers take-up the offer an amount of R1,765bn will be for immediate collection and R4,220bn will be subject to deferred collection. The debt-relief component amounts to R9,847bn constituting 70% of the total debt.”

The report noted that to be eligible for the debt-relief programme, customers must first settle in full all debt incurred over the past 12 months.

Mahlangu said: “I am very excited today. This is the government that works for the residents of Tshwane, the capital city. The debt-relief has been approved. But my task with you (residents) is that you do not consume and not pay. If your debt has been wiped, make sure that you consume responsibly because we are going to embark on a civil education starting March this year. This culture of non-payment is over.”

He publicly apologised to Executive Mayor Nasiphi Moya and the two members of the mayoral committee, Obakeng Ramabodu and Aaron Maluleke for being hard on them in the past.

Last year, Mahlangu threatened to mobilise residents to embark on “an indefinite rent boycott” campaign as part of intensifying pressure on the City to attend to their service delivery concerns.

At the time he complained about inaccurate billing, fraudulent letters of demands sent to defaulting customers and hiring of consulting firms.

Early this year, he accused Deputy Mayor Eugene Modise of reneging on his promise to cancel outstanding municipal bills for residents struggling to pay them.

Modise hit back, saying each resident must be billed based on their individual service consumption.

rapula.moatshe@inl.co.za