News24 writes that the City of Johannesburg has recovered R13.2 million from employees, including councillors, who were behind with their municipal bill payments. Starting on 31 July, the city deducted more than R7 million owed by councillors and permanent employees, while it collected more than R5.2 million in direct payments made by councillors and employees.

The City advised that of the 13,323 employees who owed money, 140 were councillors who had R3.1 million in overdue municipality bills. Managers owed a cumulative R9.8 million, while junior staff owed the rest of the R76.3 million debt. The director of customer communications for the City’s Group Finance Department, Kgamanyane Maphologela, cited Section 10 of Schedule 2 of the Municipal Structures Act as the legal framework for the deductions.

The Act states: “A staff member of a municipality may not be in arrears to the municipality for rates and services for a period longer than three months, and a municipality may deduct any outstanding amounts from a staff member’s salary after this period.” Maphologela warned: “The credit control action that the City takes against its own employees is to demonstrate that we are coming after anyone who owes the City in unpaid municipal bills.”

by Cebelihle Bhengu