DA councillor Eulbri Kubayi said that the credit controls implemented by the metro were causing huge frustration among thousands of residents who were being incorrectly billed, resulting in them having their services cut off for non-payment.
“This is not the delivery of high quality service by the metro,” said Kubayi.
“I am shocked that, while residents are paying for their services, they are being severely overcharged.
”In many cases they are paying interim bills, as their meters were not being read on a monthly basis.”
He said the metro had a responsibility to regularly read water meters and accurately bill customers for their consumption.
“In some cases, the municipality had not read meters in as long as three months,” he explained.
“This means that many residents who struggle to make ends meet are being over billed for long periods of time. The reverse can be true as well – residents can be under-billed for their consumption and then be hit with a huge water bill which they are expected to pay immediately.”
He said frustration is increasing, because residents were regularly paying for their services, but are now forced to work within a system that failed them.
“The metro must address the gaps in the meter reading as a matter of urgency,” he added.
“The system of interim billing was clearly not working and residents should be paying only for the services they use and not what the metro estimates they use.
“Measures need to be put into place to address the imbalances of interim readings.
“Credit control is a necessary measure to ensure residents do not take advantage of a system,” said Kubayi.
“However, it should not be used by the metro as a bulldozing-measure on residents who were doing their best to meet their payment obligations.
”A fair system of collection of revenue from all ratepayers must be implemented.”
The DA urged residents to report water leaks at their meters to their Customer Care Centre.
“If there is no response from Ekurhuleni then residents should contact their ward councillor with the reference number, so that the DA can attempt to force the metro to act.
“As the DA we demand that the metro expedite the installation of new, smart water meters, as they will ensure an accurate billing of consumers.
“This is, however, conditional on the checking for faults of meters before they are installed and installing them correctly to avoid further frustration.”
