“I am going to sue Councillor Jacqui Uys for degrading my integrity, I don’t owe the City of Tshwane even a cent, Jacqui Uys is politicking and I am not going to take kindly to that,” fumed newly-elected City of Tshwane Mayor Eugene Modise when the media confronted him on Friday with allegations that he owes the City of Tshwane R690 000 for services.
Modise further revealed that he has even asked the City’s Chief Financial Officer to issue him with a letter that indicates that he (Modise) indeed owes the City of Tshwane municipality nothing.
Modise said he has settled the said debt three months ago and that all along he was not aware that he was indebted to the City of Tshwane.
The allegations of Modise owing the City of Tshwane R690 000 were made by DA Councillor Jacqui Uys in a media statement she released on Friday morning.
Modise is apparently a landlord of some unnamed compound or household, because he blamed his tenants for failing to pay the debt which he says he has now paid in full.
“I only realised at a later stage that my tenants hadn’t been paying the City of Tshwane its dues because of the Covid-19 situation in the country as they had been expecting to get rebates from the government but were unable to do so,” said Modise.
In response to threats made by Modise to sue her, DA Councillor Jacqui Uys said the following:
“Modise has the right to take whatever action he dims fit, but the fact remains that as per a report that served in Council, he did owe the City more than 600K as at 31 March 2024 and this amount doesn’t build up over a mere month or two but shows years of non-payment by Modise, and this is a blatant disregard for Tshwane residents who pay their accounts.”.
However, Uys expressed happiness that it has now emerged that Modise has settled his municipal account.
The City of Tshwane has also given the media permission to publish the status of Modise’s municipal account which according to the City shows that Modise has currently paid more than he owes the City, that the City actually owes him money at the moment.
“While it is against the law to disclose personal municipal accounts of individuals, we will make an exception in the case of Mr Modise and state that Finance MMC Cllr Eugene Modise’s accounts are all current, and others have credit; that he doesn’t owe the City even a cent but instead he has paid upfront and has a credit on two of his municipal accounts,” read the statement issued by City of Tshwane spokesperson Selby Bokaba on Friday afternoon.
At the time of publishing this story Modise had not explained to Tshwane Talks as to whether he hadn’t received any monthly billing from the City of Tshwane for all these years showing him that he owes the municipality.
This as, according to him, he only settled his bill only three months ago.