Pensioner given the runaround by city
Vivienne Velthuis is hell-bent on fighting CoJ for dragging the application process of her fathers rebate rates.
Fourways pensioner Michael Purslow (88) has been struggling to obtain his pensioner’s rates rebate despite submitting numerous applications to the City of Joburg.
His daughter, Vivienne Velthuis, is concerned about the situation and said her dad had always received his pensioner rebates, until now.
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Velthuis said she had accompanied her father to the Randburg municipal offices armed with all the necessary documentation on June 26, last year, as they had always done. However, they were informed that they had come to the wrong region, which came as a shock.
“We were told that we should go to Sandton but because my dad is a senior citizen they would help us. They took all the documents and gave me a case number to follow up on in 21 working days.
“This became impossible as the call centre never answered their phones. I phoned every couple of weeks and eventually, I got through to someone who told me the application had been rejected because there were no accompanying documents. I was surprised. They said nothing was ever uploaded and we must apply again.”
On October 25, she accompanied her father to the Sandton regional office but was informed they had been encountering technical issues for two weeks and were advised to go to the Randburg offices.
“We went back to Randburg and reapplied. One of the agents said they would ensure that my query was back-dated to June and made a note on the file. I received another case number from him by email the same day.
“I have called the call centre on numerous occasions over the past year with no progress saying they will escalate. When I went to Randburg in April, they said they couldn’t escalate anymore.”
Velthuis said her dad’s rates had increased after the city revalued his property.
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“We objected [to the re-evaluation] with no response from the city. His house is not worth anything near what they had valued it at. He also has medical aid and food to buy but he cannot afford to pay these rates. When I say to the council should we stop paying, they just say they will cut him off from utilities. It is not fair to treat pensioners like this.”
She added her father had her to follow up with the city but what about those pensioners who did not have someone to help them?
In response, the City of Johannesburg’s director of communications Kgamanyane Maphologela said, “The query [from Purslow] was lodged on October 25, last year. The resolution was done this year on June 14. The necessary adjustments on the account are being processed and will reflect on the July 2024 billing statement.”
Explaining the delay in processing pensioners’ rebate applications, he said they had received more than 42 000 applications between June 2023 and May 2024, which were evaluated and processed manually by a limited team.
“There is no change in the city’s application process, however, the criteria for pensioners’ rebate is set out in the City’s Rates Policy on an annual basis. The advantage is that pensioners are now able to apply online.”
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