Local resident, Willem Daffue, is in distress about his municipal statement that had an extremely high water bill that somehow lead to his electricity to being cut off.
After following the right procedures about querying the bill, Willem stated that Joburg Water still has not amended the bill.
“My water-meter reading amounted to R46 132,46. I inspected the meter and had a plumber do a leak test on the plumbing on my property and found no leaks,” he said.
According to Willem, he visited the Customer Service Centre at the Roodepoort Civic Centre and they sent their officials to his property to do an inspection on the meter. The meter was removed and replaced with a new one. However, weeks later he found a Pre-Termination Notice on his gate. He went back to the service centre where he was told that the results for the old meter were not yet back and they were still using the old bill, but they are busy with the dispute on the old account.
Weeks later he went back to the service centre and he was told that the results on the old meter showed that the meter was faulty.
“I was told not to worry about the Pre-Termination Notice due to the faulty meter and I should continue paying the normal amount till my account gets updated. To my surprise, days later a City of Johannesburg contractor arrived at my gate and informed me that he is going to terminate my electricity connection. I explained the situation about the water meter and showed him the documentation with reference numbers but he was adamant and said that the Service Centre Personnel would tell the customers anything to get you out of the office and then he proceeded to break open my brand new electricity box on the street and remove the circuit breaker.
I immediately went back to the Customer Support Centre in Roodepoort, where they informed me that only the manager could help me, but he was not in. He would be back later and I was told to wait. I waited for about another hour and when he returned he said that the whole thing was a mistake and he would see what he could do. He eventually send an e-mail to someone and said that he can do nothing more and that I must wait for the power to be re-connected,” he explained.
The Record contacted both Joburg Water and City Power about this matter, but no response has been received – and Willem sits with the problem.
Do you perhaps have more information pertaining to this story? Email us at roodepoortrecord@caxton.co.za (remember to include your contact details) or phone us on 011 955 1130.
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