eThekwini municipality owed R8m by mental health facility

Durban & Coastal Mental Health (DCMH), an NPO which caters to thousands of mentally impaired people in KwaZulu-Natal, owes eThekwini Municipality more than R8m for services.

This was confirmed by municipal spokesperson Lindiwe Khuzwayo in response to questions from TimesLIVE after electricity was disconnected at the organisation’s Sherwood hostel last weekend, leaving 80 residents in the dark.

TimesLIVE has seen a disconnection notice dated May this year, which reflected the arrears at the Sherwood facility as almost R1.6m.

On it is stamped in red, “MUST GO OFF - URGENT!”

The most recent account, dated August this year, reflects an overdue balance of just more than R1.8m which is “now overdue and payable immediately”.

The monthly bill is R114,000, payable in early September - making the overall bill almost R2m.

But, in an indication that there are arrears outstanding at other DCMH centres which could also face being disconnected, Khuzwayo said the NPO’s total arrears stood at R8m “in all of its accounts” and it had been “failing to honour monthly payments”.

“In March a meeting was held with its management to discuss its accounts. The NPO was advised to sign credit agreements to make payment arrangements but the NPO management couldn’t afford to meet the requirements of down payments to be able to sign. 

“In the same meeting, NPO management was encouraged to continue honouring monthly payments for monthly charges to avoid disconnections. Unfortunately, the management failed to make these payments,” she said.

She said on Wednesday, another meeting was held.

“The city agreed to reconnect one of the accounts for five days to give them another chance to make payment arrangements. Failure to make arrangements within these five days will result in credit control and debt collection policy provisions being implemented and services will be disconnected.”

Asked if the city had different arrangements for organisations such as NPOs, which cater to people with special needs, she said there was one credit control and debt collection policy for all customers.

The electricity at Sherwood hostel was turned off at about 10am last Saturday. 

A source said that on Monday, management had “restored power” by running an extension cord from head office, which is on the same premises, and still had electricity.

The board of the NPO has long been accused of mismanagement.

A provincial department of health investigation last year found that the board had been “captured” and that money was being squandered, even stolen, and residents were suffering.

There had also been a “revolving door” of service providers, hired without proper procurement processes.

Late last year the board was put on terms by the provincial head of health Dr SC Tshabalala to “prepare a turnaround strategy and action plan to address the report’s findings by no later than December 15”.

The department did not respond to questions sent earlier this week asking if the board had complied with this directive.

Mbonisi Sibisi, CEO of the DCMH, did not respond to queries regarding the disconnection and the R8m debt. 

KZN social development spokesperson Mhlaba Memela said this week that the department was unaware of “the challenge”.

“It must be noted that the institution is run by an NPO with a board and a CEO for daily operations. It is not a government institution. Yes, it takes care of the vulnerable people which is a core function of the department and we fund certain programmes there.``

He said his information was that it had negotiated with the municipality to restore electricity and had made payment arrangements.

TimesLIVE