{"id":323479,"date":"2019-06-14T12:25:38","date_gmt":"2019-06-14T10:25:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=323479"},"modified":"2019-06-14T12:27:56","modified_gmt":"2019-06-14T10:27:56","slug":"these-joburg-residents-could-qualify-to-have-their-municipal-debts-written-off","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/property\/323479\/these-joburg-residents-could-qualify-to-have-their-municipal-debts-written-off\/","title":{"rendered":"These Joburg residents could qualify to have their municipal debts written off"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The City of Johannesburg has approved a &#8216;breakthrough&#8217; debt rehabilitation programme which will allow for struggling residents to apply to have their municipal debts written-off.<\/p>\n<p>The city&#8217;s finance MMC, Funzela Ngobeni, <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/HermanMashaba\/status\/1139221763336937472\/photo\/1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">said<\/a> <\/strong>that the programme will bring a new approach to Johannesburg&#8217;s increasing debtors.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;For years, residents existing on the fringes of the active economy have struggled to pay for municipal rates and services,&#8221; he said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Through the approval of this debt rehabilitation programme, the city will no be able to ensure that defaulting customers are brought back into good standing on their municipal accounts.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The broad concept of the programme hinges on an application process that will allow for strained household owners to apply for municipal debt rehabilitation.<\/p>\n<p>Ngobeni said that qualifying customers will receive immediate relief through a 50% debt write-off.<\/p>\n<p>If the customer complies with all the requirements of the programme &#8211; which include keeping their current accounts up to date and allowing for regular inspection of metered services &#8211; the remaining debt will be written off over a three-year period, he said.<\/p>\n<p>The new programme will apply to the following residents:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>A write-off is only applicable to residential account holders;<\/li>\n<li>The account holder\u2019s account balance must have been in arrears for more than 90 days as at June 30 2019;<\/li>\n<li>The combined gross income from all activities of the account holder(s) and spouse must be between R4\u201a750 and R22\u201a000 per month;<\/li>\n<li>\u00a0The market value of the property and all properties owned by the applicant must not exceed R600\u201a000.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Ngobeni said that the city will embark on educational roadshows in August, with the application process set to officially start in September.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><strong>Read: <a href=\"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/property\/318888\/rent-vs-salary-in-south-africas-biggest-cities\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Rent vs salary in South Africa\u2019s biggest cities<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The City of Johannesburg has approved a &#8216;breakthrough&#8217; debt rehabilitation programme which will allow for struggling residents to apply to have their municipal debts written-off.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":205318,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12755],"tags":[2016,26],"class_list":["post-323479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-property","tag-city-of-johannesburg","tag-headline"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=323479"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323479\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":323511,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/323479\/revisions\/323511"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/205318"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=323479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=323479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=323479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}