The mayor said thousands of people have applied through the deceased estate debt write-off programme and had their debts written off.
Last year, the City announced the programme, informing beneficiaries that if there is debt older than 24 months, they may qualify for a debt write-off. The other requirements included that the property value must not exceed R1 million, and the beneficiary must be willing to take over the municipal account to prevent any re-emerging debt.
It was noted that the property must be solely owned by the deceased, and applicants were encouraged to report the late estate to the Master of the High Court. The applicant must be of South African descent.
Mayor Cyril Xaba provided an update on the programme yesterday.
“Since this programme began, 8163 applications have been received, amounting to R944m. I am happy to report that, so far, we have been able to write off the debt for 6506 people, amounting to R526m, which is 56% of the applications received. However, there are those who didn’t meet the criteria and were therefore rejected. Our revenue section is currently processing 741 applications.”
“The programme is still open, and we encourage people who want to apply to visit our Sizakala Customer Care Centres,” he added.
Xaba also touched on other improvements the City is making to ensure that paying bills is easy for customers.
“We have made some changes to the face of the standard municipal bill to ensure that the document is simpler. These changes were necessary because we want customers to understand what they are paying for.”
He mentioned that the municipality has also embarked on a programme to digitise revenue management services through the introduction of the e-Services platform. Through this programme, they want to migrate from using the postal service to send customer bills to a...
Last year, the City announced the programme, informing beneficiaries that if there is debt older than 24 months, they may qualify for a debt write-off. The other requirements included that the property value must not exceed R1 million, and the beneficiary must be willing to take over the municipal account to prevent any re-emerging debt.
It was noted that the property must be solely owned by the deceased, and applicants were encouraged to report the late estate to the Master of the High Court. The applicant must be of South African descent.
Mayor Cyril Xaba provided an update on the programme yesterday.
“Since this programme began, 8163 applications have been received, amounting to R944m. I am happy to report that, so far, we have been able to write off the debt for 6506 people, amounting to R526m, which is 56% of the applications received. However, there are those who didn’t meet the criteria and were therefore rejected. Our revenue section is currently processing 741 applications.”
“The programme is still open, and we encourage people who want to apply to visit our Sizakala Customer Care Centres,” he added.
Xaba also touched on other improvements the City is making to ensure that paying bills is easy for customers.
“We have made some changes to the face of the standard municipal bill to ensure that the document is simpler. These changes were necessary because we want customers to understand what they are paying for.”
He mentioned that the municipality has also embarked on a programme to digitise revenue management services through the introduction of the e-Services platform. Through this programme, they want to migrate from using the postal service to send customer bills to a...
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The Mercury (Digital) - 1 Issue, March 24, 2025