A special debt relief programme, designed to assist households and businesses struggling with old debt, was discussed at an eThekwini Municipality finance committee meeting on Wednesday.

The extension of the special debt relief programme, which aims to assist domestic and business customers with a 50% debt write-off on their arrears, still requires approval from the eThekwini council, meeting next Thursday.

According to the committee report, by the end of the 2024/25 financial year, the council had made a provision of R27 billion for doubtful debts on consumer accounts. As of September 30, 2025, the debtors over 91 days were R30 billion. 

The programme is expected to write off arrears debt as of January 31, 2025, on condition that people pay 50% of the corresponding debt in full and final settlement. Customers would be allowed to settle the required 50% financial contribution in instalments, provided all the payments are made by January 31, 2026. 

Councillors will decide whether to extend the programme for three months, from November 1, 2025, to January 31, 2026.

The municipality stated that this is one of the debt collection and debt reduction strategies developed by the eThekwini Revenue Management Department, and it excludes government debt. 

Andre Beetge, a Democratic Alliance (DA) councillor and a Finance and Executive committee member, explained that the latest programme follows on the back of a recent close-out report on a similar exercise that was conducted for 45 days from mid-May to the end of June 2025, when the city only recovered R1.3 billion of an expected R3.1 to R6.3 billion. 

“Should account holders, however, in addition to the historical debt, also be in arrears for the period February to June 2025, they will be allowed to defray debt so accumulated interest-free, between February and June 2026,” he explained. 

Beetge urged the administration to address and resolve past issues that have hindered expectations. These issues included, but were not limited to:

• Poor communication.
• Staff being uninformed.
• Lack of preparation or training.
• Reliance on manual instead of automated processes, leading to bottlenecks.
• Delayed reflection of deposits, resulting in incorrect statements.

“Commitment was given that credits would be processed should the eventual outcome instead favour the account holder. We will support the extension of the debt relief programme.

“These included certain upgrades such as defining and including water losses, insurance shortfalls, affording account holders a limited payment plan as opposed to raising a single amount to defray the 50%, and facilitating the programme towards the latter part and entering the new year, when more disposable income could be accumulated towards addressing debt through bonuses or 13th cheque payments,” Beetge said. 

zainul.dawood@inl.co.za

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