With ratepayers frustrations leaving them with their hands in the air, the City of Johannesburg believes it has the answer to what many call a billing crisis and the entity’s answer is … regionalisation.
“With the regionalisation project being introduced from 1 February next year as a phased approach, the project aims to improve the overall billing so that ratepayers are billed according to the region they live in – meters are read regionally, they know when the City reads and when it bills, and customers will be able to choose a due date between the 15th and the 28th day of each month to pay their bill,” the City’s Group Finance spokesperson Kgamanyane Maphologela said.
Questions about what is being done to ‘sort out’ the billing issues are raised constantly by ratepayers. David Potter, Ward 102 councillor, agreed that billing still plagues residents. “The City, under a new administration, is working hard to ensure that queries related to incorrect bills become a thing of the past. Unfortunately, it will take some time to put people and systems into place,” he added.
The City of Johannesburg’s MMC for Finance Dr Rabelani Dagada, does not believe the City has a billing crisis, per se, but finds fault in the bylaws regarding estimations instead. Discussions about changing the bylaws that allow for estimations, valid months thereafter, are on his To Do List.
Early November, the department announced that ratepayers can, from 1 February next year within regions A, B, C, E and Portion U (large usage consumers) and regions D, G and F from April start using the regionalised system. In May it will be fully implemented across the City.
This would affect the dates that ratepayers pay their bills, between the 15th and 28th of each month. Meter readings will be taken, per region, in the first 15 days of each month. This means that municipal bills will be paid in the same month the meter is read. Meters will, according to the department, be read every month.
Sociologist, Dr Liela Groenewald, said it is difficult to predict whether regionalisation will lead to better service to residents. “If regional offices have backup electricity, excellent IT support so that computer systems are always online, qualified and well-trained staff with sufficient insight and authority to solve billing problems, effective checks on possible corruption, and if they are run well, then service can certainly improve,” she said.
The regionalisation is, however, not a new notion within the City. During his end-of-term report before the 2016 municipal elections, then mayor Parks Tau, said that in an attempt to turn around the billing system, regionalisation and decentralisation of the systems, billing distribution was improved.
