Numerous Tshwane-based civic movements have decided to join their efforts and work together to take the City of Tshwane to court regarding the long-running issue of debts that the Municipality asserts the residents owe it.
The decision was taken at the Matsepa Primary School in Mabopane on Sunday.
This move by the civic movements follows an announcement made last week by MMC for Finance Eugene Modise (who also serves as the Municipality’s Deputy Mayor) that the Municipality’s Debt Relief and Incentive Scheme would come to an end on 31 May.
This means those who have not applied for amnesty will have to face the wrath of the Municipality.
According to Modise, a total of 19 853 people have up to now applied for the said amnesty and about R2, 42 billion has already been written off from the accounts of the indebted indigents, who are also known as Poorest of the Poor (POP).
But the civic movements insist that the Municipality seemingly doesn’t understand that their gripe is not about the plight of indigents but the scrapping of all debts for all residents of Tshwane irrespective of whether they are indigent, employed, earn a salary or are unemployed, because the said debts are based on estimations.
The civic movements insist that the estimations didn’t affect only the poor and that the Municipality is trying to use the “divide-and-rule” tactic to sow divisions among those who are indebted to the Municipality.
“We are going to take the City of Tshwane to court, hence we have started collecting hundred rands from each household which is affected by the debt issue so as to pay for legal fees,” said Inwooners Bahlali Civic Movement leader David Ratladi.
“On the 18th of March 2025 we delivered a memorandum to Finance MMC Eugene Modise to scrap the debt owed by residents to the City of Tshwane but it seems like our demands have fallen on deaf ears because he went on to tell residents of Tshwane to go and make arrangements to pay a debt that is based on an incorrect billing system, so we are no longer going to march but will go straight to court to resolve this matter,” he said.
“Numerous Tshwane-based kings and chiefs as well as traditional leaders and healers were here today and they support our cause,” said Ratladi.
He urged residents who have problems with the Municipality’s debt to to the following areas to seek assistance:
1.Mabopane residents may go to Matsepa/ Mabopane Community Centre.
2. Mamelodi residents may go to Concerned Residents for Service Delivery offices at Oupa Mtshwene’s home.
3.Those in the CBD may go to the offices of Defend South Africa. 4.Those living in Atterridgeville may go to SACRA offices. 5.Olivenhoutbosch residents may go to the KURA offices.
“What the Deputy Mayor Modise is proposing here is actually not an amnesty but a command to compel residents to go and pay for a debt based on estimations and we are of the opinion that in terms of the law we are not obliged to pay for estimations,” said Ratladi.
“We are saying to the Municipality that they must forget about collecting fraudulent payments from residents as we are going to serve them with a High Court order that will unequivocally deter them from collecting money based on a fraudulent billing system,” he fumed.
Rachel Makhubele of Defend South Africa said her organisation is in support of the decision taken by the civic movements to take the City of Tshwane to court regarding the issue of the immoral and incorrect billing system,” she said.
“Our mandate is to make sure that all civic movements work jointly from now going forward and support one another’s programmes of action and the main issue for us here is that all parties involved in the City of Tshwane coalition government don’t work together as it seems like everyone dies as they wish to make a quick buck and we have been submitting memorandums which have been ignored continuously by the City of Tshwane Municipallity,” said Tshwane Bahlali Dudula Secretary Given Moraba.
South African Concerned Residents Association President (SACRA) Tumi Maifo told Tshwane Talks that the estimated billing system is a real headache and his organisation has joined forces with all other civic movements to take the Municipality to court.
Concerned Residents for Service Delivery in Mamelodi President Oupa Mtshwene told Tshwane Talks that he is concerned that residents are forced to pay for services that they don’t actually understand and that the Municipality is using the so-called amnesty as a ploy to dupe them into making arrangements by telling them that their children debts will be scrapped but up until now their debts have not been scrapped.
“Recently we engaged MMC Modise in Mamelodi and told him to go and install prepaid meters at the squatter camps but he hasn’t done so, and each time a new mayor comes in he or she would tell us that they know nothing about previous arrangements, memorandums or agreements between civic movements and the Municipality,” he said.
“We have therefore decided to unite all Tshwane-based civic movements so as to win our City of Tshwane back into the hands of the community because Tshwane does not belong to politicians but to the residents,” explained Mtshwene.
“We are aware of their fraudulent billing system, their estimations and so-called letters of final demand and are of the opinion that they have many errors and won’t have a leg to stand on once we take them to court,” said Mtshwene.
He appealed to the Municipality to re-introduce the system of physically delivering municipal accounts to households as was the case in the past so that residents can see what it is that they are owing because residents are being billed without knowing how much it is that they have actually consumed in any given month.
“Councillors got into office via the votes of the residents but once they are in office they refuse to listen to the grievances of the residents,” said Mtshwene.