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Nearly 5,000 eThekwini Municipality employees fall behind on municipal payments

The Durban City Hall serves as the seat of local government, the eThekwini Municipality. Almost 5000 City employees are in debt with R80m owed for rates and services. Picture: Leon Lestrade Independent Newspapers Image: Leon Lestrade Independent Newspapers Close to 5000 of the eThekwini Municipality's 25 000 workforce, including councillors and senior managers, have fallen behind in paying their municipal accounts. This is according to a financial report of the municipality analysing consumer debt. Their debt has grown by close to R6 million in the last three months and is now standing at approximately January and March this year, the report indicates that staff debt increased from about R74m to R80m. The challenges of defaulting employees have been an ongoing issue for the municipality. The Mercury reported last year on the extent of the problem, highlighting that senior managers, even those at executive levels, owed the municipalityfor rates and services. These revelations come amid outrage by city ratepayers at the double-digit tariff increases that could be implemented in July, provided the city's draft budget is approved. The budget is currently out for public comment. The same report outlining the employee debt details ballooning consumer debt, showing that the current city debt is now at R35 billion, a staggering increase of more than R7bn from January 2024 to January 2025. It showed that 4988 employees owe an average of R78,044 561.81, a number that has risen from the previous month. The report indicated that 54 councillors were in arrears in March; the same number was reported in February, while 52 were in arrears in January. However, the total debt has been growing over the same period. In January, the councillors owed R1.8m, and this has now increased to report said staff and councillors in arrears are subject to all credit control processes, including disconnections, redlining with credit bureaus, and legal processes. Furthermore, staff members in arrears for more than 90 days are subject to salary deductions. Although this is an effective tool for collecting from staff in arrears, the salary deduction is limited to 25% of net salary, which is sometimes insufficient to cover the amount owed, hence the continuous increase in staff debtors. 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 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. Next Stay Close ✕ IFP councillor Jonathan Annipen expressed concern that thousands of officials owe such a significant debt to the city. 'It is not unusual for employees to have their accounts in arrears, and there are by-laws that deal with these scenarios. It is a poor showing when the employees of the city fail to pay for their rates and services,' Annipen said. 'These are tight economic times, and everyone is facing difficulties. This should also speak to the tariffs that are coming in the next financial year, and maybe we ought to align ourselves not to increase those tariffs in light of the kind of scenarios we are seeing at the moment.' He said if Eskom offered electricity directly to consumers, they would pay much less.