Latest news with #OperationQoqimali
IOL News
4 days ago
- Business
- IOL News
Msunduzi Municipality warns residents about consequences of unpaid services
Msunduzi Municipality Mayor Mzimkhulu Thebolla tabled the city's budget on Wednesday. Image: Supplied Residents of Msunduzi Municipality in Pietermaritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal Midlands, have been warned of the consequences of continuing to refuse to pay for services, such as water, electricity, and rates. Mayor Mzimkhulu Thebolla issued the warning when he tabled the city's R18 billion 2025/2026 budget on Wednesday. Out of this budget, R9.6 billion would focus on service delivery, while R8.5 billion would be on operational expenses. He said the city had encountered an increase in electricity theft through illegal connections. 'Our Operation Qoqimali (collect the bills) Campaign is about stopping the prevailing culture of non-payment. 'The electricity theft is a crime, like all forms of illegal connections, a criminal offence,' he said. Video Player is loading. 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Next Stay Close ✕ Thebolla said the city loses tens of millions of rand in revenue per year, which he said was a theft of revenue that is much needed to enhance service delivery. 'We call for this practice to stop because to combat this, we will continue to work with the community and law enforcement to arrest the offenders and impose hefty penalties.' He said the city was now prepared to adhere to the residents' demand for better service delivery. 'This budget has been crafted with your (residents') concern at heart, focusing on the service delivery priorities. 'This would include improving public electricity lighting, stabilising power supply, reducing water losses, and safeguarding vital infrastructure. 'In formulating this budget, we have ensured that it is based on a financially sound plan and stabilise the city's finances while prioritising service delivery,' he said. Thebolla said capacitating revenue collection work streams to support the Operation Qoqimali Campaign would help the city to stabilise its finances. 'The project management office has been established to take charge of each aspect of the city's revenue value chain. 'This includes rolling out prepaid electricity meters, dispatching bills, resolving disputes, and implementing credit control and debt collection measures such as issuing summons against debtors,' said Thebolla. He said the court was in support of the city's effort to deal with people who were ignoring paying for services. 'That is why we have already issued 40,000 letters of demand to defaulting customers who run up high service bills and fail to pay the city.' He said the municipality had been forced to increase tariff by external elements such as the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa), which authorised Eskom and municipalities to increase electricity cost by 13.32% from July 1, and the Umngani/Uthukela Water Board, which proposed 15% increase of water tariffs for 2025/26 financial year. 'These adjustment factors in inflation include a margin dedicated to the infrastructure upgrade and maintenance, which is essential to alleviate pressure on aging and over-stretched electricity infrastructure. 'These adjustments are necessary to ensure sustainability, reliability and continued investment of service delivery,' said Thebolla. He said the city has employed 400 workers through the Expanded Public Works Programme to go house-to-house to identify indigenous homeowners to be exempted from certain charges. 'So far, we have 5,978 people benefiting from the programme, and we aim to reach even more. 'To make this possible, we have increased the household income threshold to R6,110, ensuring that more low-income families access this vital support,' he said. During a media briefing, Thebolla said the construction of the Integrated Public Transport Networks (IPTN) project to transform the public transport system, which was left unfinished in 2022, while it was supposed to be finished in 2021, would soon continue. He expressed disappointment upon taking office in 2019 when the city was removed from the Integrated Public Transport Network (IPTN) programme. 'We have worked tirelessly since then, attending to all the challenges that the Department of Transport and the National Treasury cited as the reason for the removal of Msunduzi from that requirement. 'We are very excited to announce that we have now been re-accepted, which comes with its terms. There is R45 million that is set aside for mainly critical projects,' he said.
IOL News
4 days ago
- Business
- IOL News
Msunduzi Mayor Mzimkhulu Thebolla outlines budget plans to stabilise finances, boost economy
Msunduzi Municipality Mayor Mzimkhulu Thebolla tabled the City's budget on Wednesday. Image: Supplied Msunduzi Municipality mayor Mzimkhulu Thebolla has committed his administration to addressing key challenges faced by the municipality, stabilising its finances, and growing the city's economy. The mayor tabled the City's budget for the 2025-2026 financial year on Wednesday. The budget comes as the municipality is operating in a financially challenging environment, including that it owes R2 billion to uMngeni-uThukela Water and Eskom. Addressing the council, the mayor said, 'In formulating this budget, we have ensured that it is based on a financially sound plan that will stabilise the City's finances while prioritising service delivery for all.' He added that one of the core priorities is to stabilise the City's finances, and this can only be achieved by capacitating their revenue collection work streams to support the Operation Qoqimali campaign. 'A project management office has been established to take charge of each aspect of the City's revenue value chain. This includes rolling out prepaid electricity meters, dispatching bills, speedily resolving disputes, as well as implementing credit control and debt collection measures, such as issuing summons against debtors. 'We have already issued almost 40,000 letters of demand to defaulting consumers who run up high service bills and fail to pay the City. We thank those who have been paying their bills on time and in full, and we call on those who have not to make payment arrangements or apply to the Affordability Committee for debt relief,' he continued. Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Advertisement Next Stay Close ✕ He emphasised that it is important for the public to be aware that electricity theft is a crime and that all forms of illegal connections are a criminal offence. This is not a faceless crime; electricity theft costs the City tens of millions in lost revenue per year. 'This is stealing much-needed revenue from the City and denying fellow residents enhanced service delivery. To combat this, we will continue to work with communities and law enforcement to arrest offenders and impose hefty penalties,' said the mayor. 'The budget speech we are tabling today seeks to sustain the momentum we have built in accelerating the shared growth of our economy, creating new opportunities for employment through service delivery and fighting poverty, building healthy and safe communities, deepening democracy, and building an effective and caring municipality. 'Msunduzi is the home of a dream that refuses to die, a dream that says tomorrow must be better than today. The same faith that carried us through the darkness now fuels our pursuit of renewal and progress. For 30 years, we have built, we have endured, and we have risen. We are a city that carries the weight of history and the hope of the future. We are the home of heroes and heroines, of liberation songs and labour anthems, of sorrow turned into strength,' the mayor concluded. THE MERCURY
