By Themba Gadebe
THE City of Johannesburg has written off R510 million owed to it by account holders who qualify for the municipal services subsidy scheme.
This follows the launch of a special registration drive by the City last month. At the time, the municipality anticipated at least 100 000 account holders would qualify for the scheme, with an estimated R1.5 billion in arrears.
The scheme targets child-headed households, those living with HIV and Aids, pensioners and low-come earners.
So far, spokesperson Mandy Wood said, more than 37 000 account holders were registered.
"We are registering an average of 1 000 account holders a day which exceeds our expectations by several hundred," she indicated.
The majority of all registrations come from the Soweto area, she noted.
In addition, of those that have registered, 57 percent are pensioners, 22 percent are unemployed and 12 percent have a low income.
"We have 20 account holders who have indicated they are scholars that you could consider as child-headed households," explained Woods.
The arrear costs are mainly made up of water and electricity charges.
In its mandate to provide free basic municipal services to vulnerable groups, the City of Johannesburg is currently providing free 6kl of water per month to all residents.
Residents who receive electricity supply from City Power are also provided with free 50 kw of electricity. In addition, there are no charges for assessment rates for properties valued less than R20 001.
According to Ms Woods, the Municipal Services Subsidy also covers the remaining charges of refuse removal and sanitation.
Registration days continue to be held throughout the City to cope with the demand.
In this regard, the municipality intends attending to the next areas in Pimville in Soweto from tomorrow until Saturday.
Lenasia will be attended to on 06 to 8 July. Registrations at Orange Farm take place on 11 to 13 July while Ivory Park and Rabie Ridge they kick off on the 12 to 16 July.
Diepsloot residents will targeted on 18-20 July.
Other areas to be visited in the rest of July include Coronation Ville, Vrededorp, Riverlea and Roodepoort.
Source: BuaNews
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