Tshwane official threatens resident ‘sh*t will hit the fan’

By Karabo Rammutla

Matlakala Mathye thought she had gone mad when she received a threatening message from a City of Tshwane official. 

The message said that “sh*it will hit the fan if you don’t pay up”. 

Mathye restarted her phone, thinking she was imagining things.

But indeed the message was from the City of Tshwane.

The 48-year-old Mathey said she felt embarrassed and afraid after receiving the message.

“It still feels so unreal. Such a huge metro filled with such employees. I have heard before that girlfriends and relatives of officials are preferred for municipal jobs. This is proof. No qualified person would behave like this,” she told Scrolla.Africa.

Mathye admitted that she owes Tshwane outstanding fees. She said she is going to apply for an indigent programme with the City because she is unemployed.

Resident Katlego Kekana also received the rude message. Like Mathey, he also owes the city unpaid rates money. But Kekana said the city must compensate all those who received these messages.

“They should also scrap our debt as compensation. Why are we treated like this? I complained to my ward councillor and she blamed the DA for collapsing the city,” he said.

City of Tshwane spokesperson Selby Bokaba said the employee belongs to one of the service providers contracted to the city for debt collection.

Preliminary investigations had identified the culprit who formulated the messages.

Bokaba said the service provider has placed the employee involved on precautionary suspension pending further investigations after many residents received the threatening message.

“The company has also committed to conducting an internal forensic investigation, the outcome of which will be shared with the city,” he said.

“We wish to reassure all our clients, members of the public, together with all other interested stakeholders that our cyber control systems remain intact. 

“All confidential and/or privileged information remains protected. We wish to apologise once more for the foul content of the messages camouflaged to be from the city,” he said.

Pictured above: The city of Tshwane 

Image source: Flickr

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