Tshwane Council votes to write off R684m water debt owed by Hammanskraal residents

JOHANNESBURG - The Tshwane Council has voted to write off the R684 million water debt owed by Hammanskraal residents.

The city said this was because Tshwane had been supplying Hammanskraal residents with unsafe drinking water since 2009 while still billing them.

The debt write-off received unanimous support from the full Tshwane Council, which sat in the municipality’s headquarters.

READ: Tender process delay sees Hammanskraal residents' wait for clean water continue

A report presented to the Tshwane Council on Thursday recommended that the capital city write off the water and sanitation debt of all customers that were supplied by the Temba Water Treatment Plant.

The Temba plant has not been able to provide clean water due to the dysfunctional Rooiwal Wastewater Treatment Plant.

As a result, 14,869 households will have their debts written off.

Democratic Alliance (DA) caucus leader and former mayor, Cilliers Brink, welcomed the finality of this programme, which started under his administration.

"We want the consumers to be able to pay Tshwane and so we don’t want consumers to be burdened by historical debt of water that was not suitable for human consumption."

The Tshwane Municipality said it was close to providing clean drinking water to Hammanskraal and billing the residents accordingly.