The municipality recently launched “Operation Tatise”, (a siSwati acronym, loosely translated as “Help us know you”/”Let us know you”) where staff will interact with municipal account holders to update information on the City’s billing system.
The initiative first was first mentioned in 2010 by Mbombela’s chief financial office, but due to financial constraints could not be implemented until this year. In a statement by the municipality, municipal spokesperson Joseph Ngala said the main basic objective of the operation “is to ensure the data for customers on our billing system is updated to be accurate and credible”.
Ngala said there would be a survey where a few service-delivery questions will be asked of participants to try help the municipal customer-care unit in developing an understanding of how account holders feel about the levels and quality of service offered by CMLM. Ngala added that the City of Mbombela was born as a result of the amalgamation between Umjindi Local Municipality and Mbombela Local Municipality in August 2016. However, the two municipalities used different formats for account holder information for the billing systems.
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“The former Mbombela Local Municipality itself was as a result of amalgamation of different transitional local councils (TLC) which included among others; Hazyview TLC, Nelspruit TLC, White River TLC and the areas which fell under the former Kangwane Government,” said Ngala.
“The different TLCs operated different financial systems for purposes of storing customer information, billing and other related functions. “The information from the different databases was taken over as it is and incorporated into one system.
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This is the billing system currently in use,” he said. Ngala said the account holder information in their system is not in a standard format and demonstrates that “there is a dire need to cleanse the municipal billing database information”. “This information in its current form is difficult to use at times when other actions like credit control enforcement and/or debt collection measures need to be activated.
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“For example, if you do not have the correct cell phone details you will not be able to send an SMS or MMS to the account holder for purposes of communication via cell phone,” Ngala said. He added that CMLM was trying to encourage customers to use online facilities to interact, but with non-updated customer information, it was a “futile” exercise. A minimum of 60 field workers will be appointed to conduct field surveys on behalf of the municipality.
Ngala said communities will be informed of these visits and what to expect beforehand. For more information on the operation and survey, email Operation.tatise@mbombela.gov.za.
