LOTUS Gardens, Atteridgeville and Saulsville Civic Association (Lasca) chairman Tshepo Mahlangu has defended his position.
This after the City of Tshwane noted his "reckless" remarks where he urged their followers to boycott municipal service payments.
Mahlangu clarified that Lasca is a non-political civic association for all Tshwane residents and not a lobby group for any political party.
He described the statement issued by the City of Tshwane as nonsense, personal, and emotional.
"This is not a so-called organisation. It's a community organisation, and I'm not carrying my mandate and not representing myself, but I'm representing the residents," he said.
He said he's seeking legal advice because he's representing the residents.
"These are not disciples but are the aggrieved residents of Tshwane," he said.
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Mahlangu said his organisation is not a church and is angry with the City's acting group head: communication, Selby Bokaba. He said what he said on the statement is uncalled for and unprofessional.
He said they acknowledge that they consume water, and the residents must pay. He said Bokaba is on a mission to tarnish his reputation and to dent his credibility in the community.
In response, Bokaba said Tshwane has noted the reckless and irresponsible utterances made by the so-called Lasca leader in which he called for his "disciples" to boycott the payment of municipal services.
"Mahlangu has been on a crusade for a prolonged period calling for members of his organisation to consume municipal services such as water and electricity and not pay for it. The city has taken a principled position to not dignify his attention-seeking exercise with a response, but to simply note his utterances.
"However, it’s important for the city to share this very important perspective with the residents lest they get hoodwinked by falsehoods," he said.
Bokaba said Lasca has been actively preventing and harassing city officials from reading meters in areas where they purport to be representing residents.
"Meter readers have been unable to access some properties for meter-reading purposes, and those households ended up being estimated."
He said that the city has enforced credit control measures, which are provided for in law, in a bid to recoup the more than R22 billion it is owed.
