BCM loses out with indigent register blunder

Buffalo City Metrolost nearly R7m in potential revenue in the 2024/2025 financial year after wrongly classifying more than 200 urban households as indigent. It also provided R2.9m infree basic service subsidiesto the same households. The findings were revealed by provincial auditor-general Thobile Ntetha, who recently tabled the metro’s latest audit outcomes before parliament’s standing committee on public accounts (Scopa).

Ntetha said the audit found the metro’s indigent register wasnot managed properly, with 214 urban consumers incorrectly classified as indigent and benefiting from subsidies meant for destitute households. “The total value of free basic subsidies provided to these invalid indigents amounted to R2.9m and bad debt write-offs provided to invalid indigent debtors amounted to R6.8m for the current year,” Ntetha told parliament. The auditor-general’s national spokesperson, Africa Boso, said their office had come to the findings after a “full population of the indigents register was scrutinised and compared against other databases, such as those of the department of home affairs and other departments and entities, to identify exceptions or invalid indigents.” “The municipality is disadvantaged because it is losing revenue as it provides services to indigents who do not qualify to be indigent,” Boso said.

The Dispatch understands that some of those who had been flagged also include politicians and government officials staying at affluent areas such as Beacon Bay, Bunkers Hill, Gonubie and Nahoon in East London, and in Bhisho and West Bank in Qonce, among others. BCM spokesperson Bongani Fuzile alsofailedto respond. The indigent support programme is intended to assist households with combined gross monthly incomes of R3,600 or less.

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To qualify, the account holder must be registered with the municipality, reside at the property and not own more than one fixed property. Approved households receive a subsidy of R782.26 a month, which includes up to 50 kilowatts of free electricity and six kilolitres of free water.

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