GRAAFF-REINET NEWS & VIDEO - Rate, tax and service delivery owed to the Dr Beyers Naudé Municipality amounts to R71,2 million.

At a press conference last week Wednesday, Mayor Deon de Vos and Chief Financial Officer Heleen Kok played open cards with the Advertiser about the financial situation that the municipality is in.

"We don't have money," De Vos said. "We as local government must be honest about our challenges. We can't make promises; we can't keep up." 

To ease the process of collecting outstanding money from residents, the council decided on three options to accommodate those in debt. Firstly, residents can pay all new debt (0-90 days), then 75 per cent of their older debt will be written off. The remaining 25 per cent will be payable over 24 months. 

Secondly, residents can opt to pay 40 per cent of their old debt, in which case the remaining 60 per cent will be written off. Lastly, if locals pay 60 per cent of their debt, 40 per cent will be written off.

"These options are a helping hand from the municipality," De Vos explained. "We want to motivate people to pay for services." 

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De Vos added that there is an unemployment rate of 33 per cent within the local municipal district, which makes it difficult for consumers to pay their accounts. He invited those who qualify for an indigent grant to apply.

"The administration has been instructed to increase fieldwork to identify the number of people registered for this grant," De Vos concluded.

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