Ekurhuleni will refund least 60 Alberton residents nearly R600 each, after a levy has been incorrectly debited to their services accounts for the past three months.
Ward 37 councillor Bruna Haipel’s investigations found that someone in the finance department decided to charge a “Basic water and sewer availability levy” not understanding that some complexes have a bulk meter and that the body corporate is billed and then collects the money from the residents, which is then paid to EMM.
A basic availability levy, she explains, is only charged in cases where a new house is being built and the services are not connected yet but are available. This was confirmed by the chief area engineer in water services.
“In order to rectify this mistake, 390 transactions have to be done manually because there is no IT programme that can be used to do this,” Haipel lamented.
She thanked the officials who are processing them over and above all the rest of their work.
” I am not sure how many more complexes in Ekurhuleni are in the same situation but I am getting more and more calls questioning these charges,” Haipel said.
“I fear this could turn into another billing disaster.”
