Chairperson, this issue of municipal debt has been a crisis for donkey's years. We are up to R50 billion now, of which government owes R7 billion. So, I would suggest that we could start in government assisting municipalities by paying our own bills.
I want to remind the Minister, I'm sure he knows, that last month there was a court case in Gauteng and the High Court ruled against the Gauteng MEC, who had to pay R107 million in outstanding rates to the metro. The court heard that the province had failed to pay even though it had engaged in discussions with the debt credit section of the municipality. The judge said he would have no difficulty at all in having the MEC locked up for contempt of court if he didn't pay promptly.
Now, this is exactly the kind of problem we have. We have a debt collection crisis. Government doesn't pay its bills and MECs don't give a damn. We have to go to court to get the money out of government. What do you expect the ordinary citizen to do in this country? Why should people, ordinary people, pay their bills if government doesn't? So, the question I will put to the Minister is: When is government going to take a hard line on its own accounting officers, who are legally bound to pay the bills for which the departments owe money?