Johnathan Paoli
THE city claimed to have deducted more than R7 million owed by councilors and permanent employees, while it collected more than R5.2 million in direct payments from councilors and employees who made the payments voluntarily, for a total of R13.2 million in collective deficit.
The city said it was owed about R3.1m in overdue municipal service bills collectively from 140 councilors, while management owes a combined R9.8m. The rest of the R76.3 million is owed by junior staff, totaling an amount of 13 323 employees.
Kgamanyane Maphologela, director of customer communications for the city’s group finance department, maintained that the city’s employees are expected to be above reproach.
“It’s a firm demonstration that our credit control policy is enforced indiscriminately, including against our own employees, whom we expect to be exemplary in their conduct,” Maphologela said.
Maphologela cited section 10 of Schedule 2 of the Municipal Structures Act, authorising the subtraction of the outstanding amounts from employee salaries, saying that deductions started from 31 July.
INSIDE METROS