The city of Johannesburg has written off R510-million in account holder arrears out of a total R1,5-billion as part of its subsidy scheme, the municipality said on Tuesday.
A total of 37 000 account holders, out of about 100 000 who qualify for the scheme, have already registered, municipal finance department spokesperson Mandy Woods said in a statement.
Of the R7,8-billion owed to the city, R1,5-billion will be written off.
Those who qualified to have their service arrears scrapped included pensioners, those affected by HIV/Aids, child-headed households, the unemployed and people earning less than R1 481 per month, Johannesburg mayor Amos Masondo said at the start of the drive on May 4.
The majority of registrations were from the Soweto area, said Woods.
”We are registering an average of 1 000 account holders a day which exceeds our expectations by several hundred.”
Of those who registered, 57% were pensioners, 22% unemployed and 12% low-income earners.
”We have 20 account holders who have indicated they are scholars that you could consider as child-headed households,” Woods said.
The arrears consisted mainly of water and electricity charges. – Sapa