Johannesburg - Motorist travelling in Johannesburg will not be forced to pay their outstanding rates and taxes at roadblocks.
The city’s chief financial officer, Tebogo Moraka, reassured motorists that they would not be arrested for owing rates and taxes.
This comes after some motorists reported that they were stopped at roadblocks last week.
The city faced criticism for its new debt collection technique, in which drivers who were stopped at a roadblock might be requested to pay back due rates and taxes.
Moraka denied such occurrences. “We cannot force our residents to pay at roadblocks, but we encourage them to engage with us.
“In some instances, before we come in and cut off services, if you owe us or send out pre-termination letters, you might not be in a position to come to our offices during the week because you are at work or you might not know about the Zenzele Joburg platform,” he said.
Moraka said some people took the opportunity to enter a payment arrangement plan.
“We did not stop or arrest anyone who did not engage us. I need to emphasise that,” he said.
Motorists, attorneys, and the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) slammed the plans.
Outa CEO Wayne Duvenage said he believed the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department (JMPD) would use its number plate recognition technology at these roadblocks, which would be linked to the city’s outstanding billing information system.
As for when all this will happen, and whether anyone will be arrested for non-payment, the director of communications and stakeholder engagement group finance at the city, Kgamanyane Maphologela, said: “You will know when it has started. We will communicate. We can’t share the logistics.”
Finance MMC Dada Morero said the city employed well-considered credit control initiatives and campaigns that encouraged residents with outstanding municipal debt to settle their accounts in relation to the services they had consumed.
He said the undeniable reality was that, like other municipalities across the country, the City of Joburg relied on financial contributions from all its ratepayers to facilitate the construction, maintenance, expansion, and continued provision of essential services.
“This objective is realised through a robust credit control approach,” he said.
“The revenue collection efforts by the group finance officials will be joining certain roadblocks conducted by JMPD going forward.
“These finance officials will be equipped to engage with residents on outstanding fees. They will have the capability to help residents with queries, enter into an automated acknowledgement of debt (AoD), and assist with the automated reconnection of services for disconnected residents who pay their bills or enter into an AoD. Finance officials will be performing the above tasks and not JMPD officers, as alleged.”
The Star