It doesn't happen in Jeffreys Bay. Does it?

A Johannesburg ratepayer wrote to Noseweek (#126; April 2010) recently, bemoaning the fact that he has spent years trying to find out what lies behind the endless, outrageous demands for unwarranted payment made by the Johannesburg city council.

“For many years,” he writes, “I’ve been receiving accounts from the Joburg council – either directly, or via lawyers – for properties I no longer own. Over a lengthy period I made concerted efforts to stop the flow of wasted paper, and see the end of this bad business practice with its outrageous waste of time and energy.”

When his queries and complaints were turned away by officials at the lower end of the pecking order, he spoke to all kinds of senior people, including a cabinet minister – all to no avail. Even the firm of lawyers, who were sending out accounts and letters of notice on behalf of the council, was unhelpful. They told him they wouldn’t stop sending them as they were only acting on instructions.

So he came to the conclusion that the council books are intentionally “bloated” or “cooked” with “ghost” accounts. “These lawyers, officials and councillors,” he contends, “are involved in artificially inflating the value of the council’s ‘debtors’ book’ in order to hide the fact that it is either insolvent or near insolvent. It’s perfectly obvious that those involved know these are fictitious accounts, and that they won’t, in the main, be paid. If I am right, this represents a massive fraud on the part of council officials and the attorneys acting for them.”