City of Tshwane Deputy Mayor and also MMC for Finance Eugene Modise has warned businesses, including shopping malls in Tshwane to pay up their debt to the City of Tshwane or else they will face stern action.
Modise spoke to Tshwane Talks on the sidelines of the launch of the City of Tshwane Municipality’s Nasi Spani programme in Ward 38 Mamelodi West on Friday.
“Please comply and stop embatrassing yourselves because we are going to come down hard on you because our creditors are hard on us and what we are going to do is not to condemn you but to make sure that you comply,” warned Modise.
“We have a debt of R5 billion that we owe to Eskom and if you steal electricity from us then you are making our lives difficult as the City of Tshwane Municipality,” explained Modise.
He revealed that the Municipality has agreed to pay the 3,5% increase to its workers but the possibility of that happening partly depends on big businesses and shopping malls paying up their debt.
“We are humbly requesting you to make the necessary payments because at the end of the day we are going to close these shops and the national tenants will leave, and this will put your reputations in jeopardy as owners of shopping mall buildings,” he said
He revealed that his activities in Mamelodi on Friday were centred around the Denlyn shopping mall precinct where he was doing what is called “inspection and operation.”
He said during the operation several illegal immigrants were arrested and immediately subjected to a verification process at the local police station.
“We also visited the Denlyn Mall itself and the first shop we went into is called Waltloo, wherein we realised that though they are complying, they are not doing so fully and that they are paying Denlyn complex owners Safari R 687 000, then we went to Spa and closed it down and condemned it as it doesn’t have a trading license, and up next we went to Boxer where we were taken from pillar to post before they could give us their account,” he explained.
He revealed that complex owners Safari only pay the City of Tshwane Municipality R1 million and by his calculations this is only for Spa, Boxer and Waltloo and doesn’t include the rest of the shops at the mall.
He warned that the City of Tshwane Municipality will come back to the Denlyn Mall to conduct further investigations regarding the debt owed to the Municipality by the owners of the complex Safari.
In his “inspection and operation” venture, Modise was accompanied MMC for Community Safety Hannes Coetzee, MMC for Human Settlements Aaron Maluleka, City of Tshwane officials and several Ward Councillors.