Court ruling exposes Johannesburg’s flawed billing system

Given the volume of complaints from residents of Johannesburg about the city’s billing system, many householders will welcome, as vindication of their struggles against the council, a damning court judgment which characterises the municipal account system as a shambles.

In the High Court in Johannesburg, Acting Judge Stephan van Nieuwenhuizen said the city “has not the faintest idea of what is going on, on the ground” and its accounting system “seems to take cognisance of fictitious facts”.

One of the most astounding aspects of the case was that the city continued to post charges against an account, based on estimates, despite the fact that electricity supply had been terminated to the property because of a dispute over the amount owing.

That power was switched off by the municipality with a dispute pending was also a contravention of the Municipal Systems Act, claimed the resident in this case, David Lang.

He was a director of the company Mir-Air, which saw its alleged R1.67 million bill hiked to more than R4.4 million by the city.

ALSO READ: Getting solar? City Power clears the air on R30k application fee and disconnections

The arrogance of the city, on top of its incompetence and ignorance, was indicated clearly by its refusal to withdraw its application for summary judgment against Mir-Air, which led to the case before Van Nieuwenhuizen.

That led to a punitive costs order against the city, in addition to the enormous costs of fighting an account holder rather than negotiating with him in good faith.

There are many other victims of the capricious and inefficient municipal billing system who don’t have Lang’s determination.

In many cases, they cough up inflated sums because they need to sell the property.

This system is iniquitous and needs a thorough overhaul as soon as possible.

NOW READ: CoJ accounting and billing system problems laid bare in damning high court judgment