I herewith wish to voice my extreme disappointment and unnecessary anxiety at the CoJ Billing system.
I have observed and spoken to many other sectional title managing agents in the West Rand, and we all have the same complaints regarding the high water and electricity billing. Every week in the media we have people trying to get answers from the City of Johannesburg such as Marilyn from Roodepoort, 24 November 2017; Rob Thomas, Roodepoort, 13 October 2017; Peeved #COJmustfall, and lots more, who just want to get the system right, and remove the unease of having to wait for the pre-termination notices to disconnect services which are already paid, but not taken into account. Perhaps we should all get together, form a committee, and approach the CoJ with one voice.
My suggestion to our financial departments at the City of Johannesburg is to place a moratorium on all these accounts that we are plagued with, and to halt all disconnections to avoid more corruption and bribery until a proper system is employed which includes the consumers and CoJ meeting to correct the problems that we are faced with at the moment. Also a thorough investigation and examination of these Smart Meters and their accuracy.
Since the introduction of the Smart Meters for the utilities there are endless problems with very high amounts which results in the pre-termination notices being sent out, threatening to cut services. How accurate are these meters? If and when you go and query these exorbitant amounts at the city offices, you are given all kinds of explanations as to how these high amounts were arrived at. You are advised to just pay at least half of the amount, then come back and sort out the rest. I cannot believe that until September 2017, with the older water meter, our bill was more or less R20 000 a month on actual readings, for a complex comprising 50 units of 70sq metres each. Then they installed the new plastic water meter, and suddenly, the bill sky-rocketed to R400 000 from then till the end of end January 2018. The same with the electricity account of R277 000. Actual readings are paid by the consumer, and the meter readings are estimated.
Surely if you reconcile the two readings, there should be an average amount for maybe a period of either three to 12 months, both for electricity and water usage.
I noticed in a recent Roodeport Record that City Power has appointed a new manager. It seems that the staff turnover in this department is very high, with the result that proper accounts and billing need to be introduced. I would suggest that the new manager, Mr Lerato Setshedi, have an open door policy to sort out the billing mess. Consumers are not consulted or advised how these Smart Meters are able to improve our living standards.
I would urge our Executive Mayor, Mr Herman Mashaba, to visit the different Metros and go personally to these offices to get first-hand experience of how these queries and complaints are handled in the various walk-in offices. He should also have a hotline number where consumers can voice their dissatisfaction concerning these matters, and to help the city fight corruption.
