Open day opens the way

Most residents who were asked, and all ward councillors in attendance, said that the open day held by the City of Johannesburg’s Revenue Shared Services Centre on 28 June was a success.

Hundreds of residents attended the event at the Randburg Customer Service Centre in Blairgowrie, with queries related to municipal accounts.

Most said that they had to wait about two hours and 15 minutes in the queue, before being helped by a customer relations agent, but most queries were resolved satisfactorily, and those that were not were said to be resolved soon.

“It was absolutely wonderful,” said residents Maryna van Zyl and Leonora Oosthuizen.

“Our complaints were fixed and the [agents] were polite.”

According to Oosthuizen, she had been struggling to resolve her query for four years prior to the open day.

Ken Collins was also satisfied with the service he received.

“I was charged for a cut-off fee that was a mistake,” he said.

“I waited about two and a half hours and they fixed it in five minutes.”

Some residents encountered difficulties and could not have their queries resolved.

Vanessa Govender explained her query.

“It is a complex problem about paying off debt on the house when there is no debt,” she said.

“The system was not online today and they said I must come back on Monday.”

Kosta Balanoff also had to wait until the next week before an agent would be able to help him with his query about an overcharged electricity bill.

Ward 98 councillor Laurette van Zijl, Ward 102 councillor David Potter and Ward 104 councillor Mike Wood all approved of the event, saying that most of the people they had spoken to were happy.

Graham de Kock, who is the chief whip for the Democratic Alliance (DA) Caucus in Johannesburg, said that the agents worked hard and did well.

Deputy director of Customer Service Centres in Johannesburg Northern Regions, Arthur Mbobo said that the day was succesful and another open day would be held in the future.

Details: City of Johannesburg 086 056 2874.