Angry residents question Umzinyathi Municipality’s billing system for water

Courier readers are unhappy about Umzinyathi District Municipality’s (UDM) water billing system.
This comes after readers complained about the recent statement that they had to go and request their account from UDM, months after they had not received one.
According to a source who wishes to remain anonymous, he was appalled when he got his account saying that he owed R55,479.
“I have a debit order on my water bill and I pay about R400 monthly. I had to set it up, as I was not receiving my statements from UDM and I don’t know how my account reached R55,479 without being called to come through and make payment arrangements,” he explained.
He added that his recent statement says that readings were done between April 21 and May 25, and that he used 3000 kilo-litres of water. “How is that even possible when I stay alone and I only come back home in the evenings after work?” he questioned.
He further explained that his meter was only recently read by municipal workers after he queried his statement.
“My meter is buried underground and I don’t understand where they got the reading from.
“I actually went and took a photo after they were done and to my surprise, the meter was covered in sand and no numbers were visible.”
Sanele Zuma, a resident of Sibongile Location, told the Courier that he had previously called UDM and requested his water account, only to be told to access it online. “My wife and I have been calling UDM for months on end to request my water account statement and we were lucky when they responded. As an elderly people, we have no clue how to download our statements online and when we explained this to them, we were told to visit the accounts offices,” said Zuma.

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