According to the City of Johannesburg (CoJ) and Joburg Water, Altus Boshoff and his family of five drank, bathed in, swam in and flushed R62 million worth of water in September.
This is not just a minor billing error by the Revenue Services of CoJ. R62 million in water, charged at the highest bracket of the approved tariffs for 2015/2016 at R28.08 per kilolitre, would mean that the Boshoffs used at least 2.2 milion kilolitres of water in September. That could fill 88 and a third olympic-sized swimming pools, or Nkandla fire pools. According to Altus, their average usage per month ranges between 26 and 36 kilolitres a month. Should they have docked R62 million to cover this “debt” to CoJ, they’d in effect be paying for 61 332 months of 36 kilolitres’ usage, or 5 111 years. Could they have gathered the cash for this transaction, they’d not pay for water again until the year 7126.
“To say the least, it’s a ludicrous amount,” Altus told the Record when he initially lodged the complaint. Last Monday (12 October) Joburg Water officials pitched up at his house, gave him his statement and a termination notice and summarily cut off the family’s supply. After a week of struggles, he managed to get it reconnected on Friday morning, but not before taking a trip to Braamfontein to have a word with officials at Thuso House Customer Service Centre. He had to take off work, he told the Record, and had a list of a good 20 different reference numbers for the same basic issue.
“To date, no one could explain to me how the fault slipped in, why their system didn’t flag the exorbitant amount and how it will be rectified, but I was told there is no issue with my account,” he said.
He was promised to receive a normal account based on actual usage at the end of October.
The Record spoke to Joburg Water spokesperson David Sibiya about the problem, after which he escalated the matter to Revenue Services.
“They have to get to the bottom of this, resolve it and give us feedback as to what the problem was,” Sibiya in an email replied.
More to follow.
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