Metro stays mum on final notices

ANGRY RESIDENT of Croydon writes:

I would like to enquire of Ekurhuleni how their computer systems send out final notices to residents.

I am quite sure this is a way to simply get an extra R116.28 out of people every month.

I had endless trouble when paying my account through the post office or on EFT. Every time I paid before the due date, I still received a final notice and was told by the municipality that the amount had been captured after the due date and I had paid for the final notice amount.

I then switched to e-Siyakhokha. Wonderful! For a number of months my account was paid (and captured) before the due date and no final notices were received.

Then, last month, my payment was captured on September 30 and went through on October 2. I have the e-mail from e-Siyakhokha stating that the payment was received.

I then received a final notice on October 10. My current municipal statement says I made payment on the 16th! The money was out of my bank account on the 2nd (and paid before the due date of October 5) – 14 days before they “captured” it on the system.

This is totally unfair on residents. With rising food and fuel costs (every month), R116 is a lot of money to have to fork out extra every month for a final notice when your account is, in fact, paid in full.

The accounts department does not answer their phones, so how does one fix this? You have to take time off work to go there.

If you simply ignore the final notice account you’ll get another next month as your account is in arrears.

Despite waiting for comment from the metro for several weeks, they failed to reply – Editor