Pretoria - Tshwane MMC for finance Peter Sutton has vowed that the municipality will continue to collect debts following the aggressive #TshwaneYaTima revenue-collection campaign early this year when municipal services to defaulting clients were disconnected.
Sutton sounded the warning ahead of the tabling of the municipality’s 2022/23 budget speech today.
He said the #TshwaneYaTima campaign resulted in the collection of over R700 million in a short space of time.
“The campaign was also instrumental in addressing the problematic culture of non-payment. We will continue to drive our debt collection efforts and apply strict financial management measures,” he said.
The campaign, according to him, was also instrumental in addressing the problematic culture of non-payment.
He also expressed a vote of confidence in the multiparty coalition government, saying it has worked hard to stabilise the City’s finances.
Sutton said the multiparty coalition government's MMCs “have had to hit the ground running to ensure that we start the work to deliver on our promises” since assuming office five months ago.
“We have managed to bring stability to council and even though there will always be robust engagement by the opposition to possibly disrupt the work of council for their political gains, we have made sure that our council meetings function and that we are a stable voting block together,” he said.
Sutton said the delivery of the budget speech today followed a recent public participation process on the budget and integrated development plan, which afforded all city stakeholders an opportunity to submit their comments and inputs on service delivery for the next five years.
He expressed satisfaction about the recent credit rating upgrade by GCR Ratings, which is one of the City’s official credit rating agencies.
“The agency upgraded our credit rating to CCC+(za) as an issuer of long-dated debt and to CA (za) as an issuer of short-term paper, giving the City a positive outlook in both cases. This is an important development, because to effectively deliver services, we need to ensure that the City’s financial position is stable,” Sutton said.
Pretoria News