Poor service delivery continues to be a burning issue with many residents, especially when dealing with officials at local authority level, concerning the querying of municipal charges wrongly debited, or complaints of water or electricity service cuts.
Hasmukh Jivan (78), a pensioner residing on Marinus Street, in Erasmia, told the Laudium Sun, this past Friday, “I have a big problem with the City of Tshwane accounting system. This dates back to three years, but the initial problem started about 7 years ago, in 2014. I have property in Marabastad, on 11th Street, near the Belle Ombre train station. In 2014, there was a building behind our property, which was subsequently demolished by the City of Tshwane, because squatters were living there and destroyed it, by first stripping and stealing everything from the building and then even stealing the bricks off the walls, etc. When the Council demolished that property, they damaged the back wall and water pipes on our property. Then squatters started stealing from our property, as it was easier to get in from the back wall. They came through, into our property, despite us having a wall and fencing, and stole water pipes, basins, toilet pans and even destroyed part of our property. I then reported to the Council’s Water Affairs Department of the squatters damaging my place and gave the Department instructions in writing, to close off the water supply to our property, as the water pipes were damaged. We decided to rather use our neighbour’s ablution facilities, due to the vagrants who were stealing water from the damaged pipes behind our property. The letter was acknowledged by the Council. Everything seemed to be in order, concerning the utility bill we were receiving from Council, as from June 2014 to May 2018, there were no charges for water, but only electricity and rates. However, in June 2018, we suddenly got a bill of over R80 000, claiming we owe the amount for water usage. I was shocked. I then consulted Drain Surgeon, the professionals, to check up our water pipes and water usage. Drain Surgeon came back to me and said that none of the water pipes had water and that the supply from the council side was disconnected. I then came to the Laudium Customer Care offices, to enquire about this irrational decision by the City of Tshwane, to charge us for water which we did not even have nor were using. They could not help me and referred me to their Centurion office in the Capital Towers building. There, I engaged with the head, who then wrote a letter instructing the City of Tshwane to reverse their charges for water for the period 2014 -May 2018. However, even after a few months, the amount was not credited and I kept on receiving warnings that our electricity would be cut off, if we did not pay the full amount outstanding, which included the water charges. Then, on May 15th, the council disconnected the power. I then met with their legal team, asking why they disconnected my electricity, and after explaining to them my years of complaints, about two weeks later, they then reconnected the electricity on June 4th, but with the proviso that I should sort out the account with their accounts department within 30 days, or else they would switch it off again. I’m definitely not going to pay a cent for the water. I can’t pay for water which was not even supplied to me. Now they are saying that I owe them a deposit of over R18 000, for electricity and are charging me R15 000 for connecting and disconnecting my lights, which they claim they did 5 times in the past few months. This is obviously a tactic to ‘milk’ innocent people like us, because the Council is bankrupt. The Council is overcharging the law abiding citizens and adding non-existent charges to their accounts in order to pay for their own mess-ups. This is not acceptable. We can’t pay for the Council’s mismanagement of finances. I need help and I want the public to know how this government is robbing us.”
Lindela Mashigo, City of Tshwane spokesperson, said, “The client was billed up to the last actual reading of August 24, 2018 that could be confirmed on the removed water meter reading, 624 units (see below screen grab of the job card with a photo of the reading). The water meter was removed upon the client’s request. Prior to August 2018, the Water Department confirmed that the client had an internal leakage which remains the responsibility of the owner. A credit journal was passed on the October 2020 invoice for the over charged water account. Credit Control fees such as interest, final demand and disconnections fees were reviewed and reversed. It will reflect on the August 2021 invoice. The client is still liable for basic charges on water and sanitation; the account remains in arrears after the reversals due to short payments towards the account. A meeting has been scheduled with the client and all the relevant stakeholders, to give more detail to the matter for an amicable solution.”
