Residents have suffered another financial blow after the City of Joburg implemented water and electricity deposit increases.
The move had resulted in residents receiving inflated bills, which they could not account for.
Tim Truluck, Ward 117 councillor said he had received several complaints from residents, who had received bills reflecting miscellaneous charges, but did not know the reason for these charges.
Stan Maphologela, spokesperson for city council’s group finance said, “We would like to inform customers of accounts that have not been charged deposits for electricity and water services that they will have this deposit billed to their account.”
However, Midrand resident Esmeralda Kerlen said a “deposit request” of R1 200 was reflected on her bill despite having paid a deposit four years ago.
“When we enquired about it, we were told that we had to provide the City of Joburg with proof that we had already paid a deposit four years ago.”
After scanning and emailing it to the city council she had not received any feedback.
However, some residents were facing disconnections after payments for their general consumption were automatically deducted for the deposit, leaving them in arrears.
According Truluck, this may be due to people perceiving the additional charges as a mistake and therefore only paying for their average consumption.
However, he said, residents should always query such discrepancies.
The city council required a two-month average consumption electricity and water deposit on all accounts.
However, Truluck said this could see people having to pay deposits amounting to as much as R5 000 to R10 000, putting undue pressure on the public.
Meanwhile, Maphologela said the decision to raise the deposits was in-line with the city council’s bylaws.
“[This] means that customers who have no deposit reflected on their account will be required to pay an average of two months billing for their metered services,” he said.
In-line with the credit control and debt collection bylaw promulgated in May 2005, which was implemented by the city council in February 2006, deposits were raised on accounts as security in payment of any charges which are due.
Maphologela said the city council piloted this project from February in various regions, and customers were duly informed, but chose to ignore the request.
Therefore, the council was obliged to enforce these bylaws, he added.
According to Maphologela, the city council’s credit control and debt collection policy provided that where a deposit had not been paid to the municipality for whatever reason, water and electricity may be disconnected until such time as an account holder agreement had been signed and the applicable deposit paid.
However, he said, the city council was aware of the financial impact the increases would have on residents and was, therefore, offering a payment plan, payable over six months, for those who faced difficulty paying the lump sum.
