I live in Randhart and I have been to the municipality centre on Swartkoppies Road. I believe this is a serious issue especially considering the upcoming elections.
We recently installed prepaid electricity meters at our office and at home. It took three weeks more than the maximum time frame stated by municipality for the electricians to install the meter, and even then they brought the incorrect meter with them – this was simply an inconvenience.
I am happy with the meter at my office, but the meter at my house is dropping by 60 to 80 units a day even with most electronics turned off. After redialling the electricity department’s number many times, a man answered and said an electrician will be dispatched the next day to fix the problem. When I called two days later to find out where the electrician was, the phone was eventually answered and I asked to speak to the same person I had already spoken to. This was followed by the man on the other end putting down the phone.
I called many times over the following Friday and Monday, no answer at all. Then we started having sewage problems. Our shower, sinks and baths were taking a long time to empty. We got a plumber out who told us it was not our pipes and we must contact the municipality; he obviously charged us. Trying to contact the sewage department was even more useless than the electricity. We now have a flooded front yard full of sewage, waste and hygiene products.
After finally reaching the end of my patience, I went down to the municipality. I was greeted with no boom guard and potholes, which pretty much summed up Ekurhuleni in a few seconds. Electricity was no help, a woman there was sitting on her cell phone and did not stop even when talking to me.
After I explained my situation, she proceeded to call a number which was busy – she dialled it twice then proceeded to stare at her cell phone and after several minutes tried it again. I said I was going to sewerage, I will be back soon.
At sewerage, I was greeted with empty offices and very rude staff. The staff seemed very upset that I had not logged a complaint telephonically, which is impossible with their call centre. After fighting with them for more than 20 minutes and being accused of being disrespectful (it’s very disrespectful to ignore a ringing phone), I finally got a reference number.
Back to electricity, more fighting continued because the lady who was supposed to be calling was back on her cell phone. I asked her if she had made progress and only then did she decide to call back. She got through eventually and I was eventually approached by a very rude lady who kept repeating herself after I said I understood. She also put words in my mouth to try and make it seem as though I was in the wrong.
Eventually I got reference numbers for both problems and apparently it will be sorted out in the next two days.
This experience has been extremely bad and should not be happening. My living conditions are getting worse and worse as my bill just rises.
Anonymous
