Councillors who owe debts to municipalities in KwaZulu-Natal risk losing their jobs.

This was a warning issued by the MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Nomusa Dube-Ncube‚ to municipal mayors at managers during the opening session of the Muni-Mec at Coastlands in Durban‚ her office said in a statement. The Muni-Mec is an intergovernmental body that meets quarterly to analyse the state of local government and is made up of the MEC and the Municipal Mayors and Municipal Managers in the province.

In her address Dube-Ncube said that councillors have the responsibility of leading by example by ensuring that they pay their bills on time every month.

“What we are calling for is not something that is unreasonable as the Municipal Systems and Structures Act makes provision for disciplinary steps to be taken against councillors who do not pay for municipal services.

“They can even be fired from their positions‚ since the position of being a councillor is one that goes with the responsibility of being a leader through your actions. We want all our communities to have the habit of paying for services‚ but our councillors have to be at the forefront‚” said Dube-Ncube.

Dube-Ncube said her department is currently working with municipalities to get the numbers of councillors that are in arrears in the payment of their municipal bills.

“Two years ago we dealt with this issue‚ but are now seeing that this habit is now starting all over again and we will be certain to nip it in the bud through the institution of disciplinary processes on those who have defaulted on their municipal bills‚” said Dube-Ncube.

“While a majority of our councillors are in the good books in terms of municipal bills‚ we always want 100% compliance in this area‚ as it is an important aspect which can collapse our municipalities as revenue collected through rates and other services are crucial in Municipalities being able to fulfill the constitutional duties” continued Dube-Ncube.