Council to discuss persistent billing issues
Ratepayers can still expect to pay unusual amounts for their municipal bills, but the council has planned on addressing it by the end of March.
The municipality will hold a meeting at the end of March to discuss and report about the billing system issues that have wreaked havoc in many Krugersdorp homes these past couple of months.
This comes after rate payers realised their municipal bills were skyrocketing because of a billing system problem.
Since Mogale City Local Municipality’s new R50 million billing system was introduced in July, it is still not functional and municipal bills are still incorrect, consequently forcing the municipality to use two billing systems that do not correlate with one another.
The municipality has implemented the new system, LIMMS, and planned on migrating from the old system, BIQ, because they used it without paying the owner any fees for the use thereof, the News reported in November last year.
According to Dennis Pretorius, the Democratic Alliance’s Financial Spokesperson in Mogale City, in an agreement between BIQ owner Danie van Heerden and the municipality, R7 million in fees have been paid to him for the use of BIQ.
“I don’t think we are going to receive good news at the meeting,” Pretorius said.
“But we are going to have the opportunity to ask questions about the issue that was not even properly discussed by the Auditor General last year.”
Pretorius said the dysfunctional billing system and water losses were not discussed as two critical issues within the municipality.
Nerosen Venketsamy, the senior manager in the Gauteng business unit within the Office of the Auditor General, said issues like water losses could impact negatively on the status of future audits if not addressed.
Councillor Farouk Bhayat, Mogale City Local Municipality Member of the Mayoral Committee for Finance, said the municipality is however “committed to bringing the percentage loss down gradually. We have strategies in place to achieve such reductions.”
But Pretorius said the billing issue is not yet fixed an is “not getting better.”
The News has approached Mogale City Local Municipality’s spokesperson, Nkosana Zali, for comment, but none was received.
No date has been set for the public meeting, however, the News will keep readers updated.
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