Huge number of residents using services for free
"1 166 households utilise municipal services, but are not registered on the billing system."
“During a recent survey, it was found that 1 166 households were not registered on the system but were utilising municipal services,” said Mayor Herman Mashaba.
This came after a meeting was held with the Revenue Department officials, regarding the City of Johannesburg’s (CoJ’s) long-standing billing crisis. “During this meeting, I was informed that a significant number of property owners were not on the CoJ billing system, despite using municipal services,” he said.
He added that the CoJ’s billing system has been plagued by mismanagement for years under the previous administrations. “The corruption by some City Power officials, as well as contractors connected to departments and entities, has also made a huge contribution to the crisis,” said the Mayor.
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Residents were assured that the CoJ is already working to address these failures by conducting an audit of properties and meters. “By doing this, we are enforcing consequence and performance management for contractors and recruiting skilled and qualified professionals to address our challenge. This also means that wrongful terminations will be ended, because for the CoJ , even one wrongful termination is one too many,” he said.
Ratepayers and property owners are encouraged to participate in the Billing Open Days where they can interact with the revenue frontline staff, who will assist them to remedy or update their accounts. Residents will be notified when the next open day will take place.
The CoJ has instituted a process of verification that will be conducted by the Group Head of Revenue Shared Services where a list of all accounts due for disconnection will be compiled and issued to the City’s Credit Management Team. “To ensure disconnections happen properly, the list will be reviewed by the Director of Credit Management, before any action is taken,” the Mayor said.
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He also said that one of the biggest issues contributing to the billing crisis, is the property owners who refuse to pay their municipal accounts. “There are residents with no queries on their accounts who should be paying for municipal services. They have the means to do so, but refuse payment. The City has made a decision to institute credit management processes against these individuals and will pursue legal action where necessary,” he said.
He concluded by saying, “Paying for municipal services is not an option and we should all do our part. I urge those who are not paying for their services to do so. I will do anything in my power to ensure the billing crisis is finally resolved.”
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