Municipalities owe millions

2009-06-23 21:03

Cape Town - Several municipalities are tens of millions of rand in arrears on their water bills.

The top slow payer, according to department of water affairs figures, is the Bushbuckridge Local Municipality, which has owed Bushbuckridge Water an amount of R105.4m for more than 120 days.

Second is Mompari District Municipality, which is more than 120 days overdue in paying the R94.6m it owes Lepelle Northern Water.

The overdue amounts were among figures sent to Sapa on Tuesday in response to a question on how much money municipalities owed South Africa's 15 regional water boards.

According to the water affairs department, terms for settling such accounts are usually 30 days. The department said almost all the overdue payments related to money owed for water supplied.

The figures show municipalities owe water boards R1.1bn in total, of which the bulk - R594m - falls within the 30-day category.

Other municipalities with large, long-overdue accounts include Matjhabeng Local Municipality (R30.2m), which incorporates the Free State gold mining towns of Welkom and Odendaalsrus; and Ba-Phalaborwa Municipality (R24.2m) in Limpopo.
 

- SAPA