GOOD Statement by Sarah Mabotsa ,
GOOD Councillor and MMC for Economic Development and Spatial Planning in Tshwane
07 March 2025
GOOD has supported the City of Tshwane’s debt relief plan for residents in debt, including indigent and child-headed households, as well as customers with property values of less than R250,000.
The City of Tshwane’s new multi-party administration inherited debtors’ book of more than R30 billion from the previous DA administration.
We analysed the debts and broke them down into several categories, which include:
- Indigent customers who owe R2,632bn
- Inactive accounts that make up R1,751bn,
- Residential customers who owe a total debt of R15,833bn, and
- Business customers who owe R6.746bn
The reality of the situation is that for many residents, such as those in indigent households or residents from very low-income communities, multiple years of debt is simply not possible to pay off in its entirety.
The purpose of the debt relief programme is to incentivise residents to catch up with their overdue payments by writing off long-standing debt provided residents pay their recent accounts for the last 12 to 36 months.
The debt relief programme offered by Tshwane allows for the debt that is older than 3 years to be written off, so long as the customers first pay in full all debt accumulated over the last 12 months.
The incentive also applies to deceased estates, where the beneficiaries of estates may settle the municipal debt that has been incurred within the previous two years in full and the City will write off any older debt.
Businesses that have long term debt with the City are also offered incentives to bring their accounts up to date.
- Businesses that have long term debt (over 3 years) may pay off the three years of municipal debt in full in a single payment and will receive a 100% write-off of the debt that is older than three years.
- Businesses that have debts owed to the City that are less than three years may pay the principal debt in full and receive a write-off of the interest that is owing.
The city and its residents have an obligation to look after the poorest of the poor and GOOD is proud to support these measures to assist indigent and child-headed households, as well as residents of properties valued at less than R250,000. We also need to incentivise those residents who CAN afford to pay to catch up with their payments, hence the debt write-off incentives to assist getting everyone up to date on their accounts.
Media enquiries: media@forgood.org.za