Notices

George Municipality is aware of concerns and various untruths being raised regarding indigent support benefits. As part of the Municipality’s Council approved Indigent Policy, indigent registrations are subject to ongoing verification and review to ensure that public funds and Equitable Share allocations are directed to households that meet the qualifying criteria approved by Council. The policy specifically allows for annual re-applications and continuous verification of indigent registrations.

During a recent verification process, a number of records were identified where qualification requirements could not be confirmed. Examples included missing supporting documentation, expired applications, unverifiable income information, ownership-related exceptions, or other instances where the Municipality was unable to confirm continued eligibility in terms of the approved policy.

Where eligibility could not be confirmed, indigent support was suspended. This does not prevent affected residents from re-applying or providing the outstanding documentation for reassessment.

Importantly, the Municipality remains fully committed to supporting qualifying indigent households. In fact, the 2026/27 Indigent Policy introduced increased income thresholds linked to social pension levels, enabling more households to qualify for assistance than in previous years.

The Municipality acknowledges that any interruption of indigent benefits may cause concern or financial pressure for affected households. For this reason, the Municipality commenced a comprehensive indigent registration and awareness campaign on 2 June 2026, which will continue until 14 July 2026. Through this outreach programme, municipal officials are visiting communities across George and the wider municipal area to assist residents with new applications, annual renewals, the submission of outstanding documentation and enquiries regarding their indigent status. These outreach sessions, held at community venues during the evenings, have been specifically arranged to make the registration process as accessible as possible to qualifying households.

Residents who believe they were incorrectly removed from the indigent register are encouraged to visit any municipal office so that their circumstances can be reviewed as quickly as possible. George Municipality remains committed to administering the indigent support programme fairly, consistently and in accordance with the Council-approved policy, while ensuring that available public resources reach the households for which they are intended.

George Municipality would like to inform residents that many streetlights across the municipal area may remain switched on during the day over the next two weeks.

This forms part of an extensive streetlight repair and maintenance programme currently underway. Keeping the streetlights switched on during daylight hours enables municipal teams to identify faulty circuits, test repairs, and ensure that the streetlight network is operating correctly.

Residents are assured that this is a planned maintenance activity and not a fault with the streetlight system.

George Municipality thanks residents for their understanding and cooperation while this important work is being carried out.

George Municipality wishes to inform consumers that Ontec, one of the service providers for prepaid electricity vending, is currently experiencing a technical issue affecting prepaid electricity purchases made via ABSA banking platforms only
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Only ABSA clients may experience difficulties when purchasing prepaid electricity through their bank. These customers are advised to use an alternative vending platform or purchase directly via the Ontec Energy Insight portal: https://home.ontec.co.za/EnergyInsight/index.html.

Ontec is working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible. We apologise for any inconvenience caused and appreciate your patience.

George Municipality wishes to inform consumers that Ontec, one of the service providers for prepaid electricity vending, is currently experiencing technical issues affecting electricity purchases made through certain banking platforms, particularly Absa.

Consumers who experience difficulties purchasing prepaid electricity through their bank are advised to use alternative vending platforms or purchase directly via the Ontec Energy Insight portal: https://home.ontec.co.za/EnergyInsight/index.html.

Ontec is working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible. We apologise for any inconvenience caused and appreciate your patience.