City finds R1.6m power bill ‘due to negligence’
On rectifying the problem, the city discovered that the account has a credit of R131 356.02.
Pierre Sanan says some of his statements for Sanan’s Auto Spares are billed at an unknown business address. Picture: Alaister Russell
The City of Joburg has discovered that Sanan’s Auto Spares’ electricity billings, which fluctuated from zero to R1.6 million, were due to gross negligence by employees.
Business owner Pierre Sanan’s account balance for December was R166 577.41.
READ THE FULL STORY: Business owner charged R1.6m on prepaid account
On rectifying the problem, the city discovered that the account has a credit of R131 356.02.
Mayor Herman Mashaba’s spokesperson, Tony Taverna-Turisan, said a thorough investigation has been conducted on the matter and it was discovered that on December 5, the incorrect charges were rectified on the customer account and the electricity meter was also closed retrospective to January, when a pre-paid meter was installed.
It was then discovered the new meter was not timeously loaded on the system, as well as the closing of the old meter.
Another problem was that an incorrect closing reading was subsequently used to close the old meter.
“The result was that the customer owed the City R166 577.41,” said Taverna-Turisan.
He said the team was subsequently instructed to follow the correct process and update the closing reading with the value issued by City Power.
“The account has been rectified and has a credit of R131 356.02,” he said.
An elated Sanan thanked The Citizen for publishing the story about his plight.
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