Pay, or else!

VANDERBIJLPARK. – Wrong meter readings off grossly inflated municipal billing have joined the usual complaints about street-lights that burn around the clock or not at all, street lights that burn all day and then go off at night, potholes, overgrown traffic islands and general overgrowth that is never cut and obscures road-users’ vision, burst pipes , cable theft, vandalised and lived-in substations, illegal electrical cut-offs of people who are fully paid up, etc.

Mrs Denise Roets of CW4 went to the Emfuleni government (ELM) and were told there was nothing wrong with their account excepting that it was short. She and her husband Piet disagreed over what had been on the meter and lodged a complaint with the Public Protector. ELM told them to phone in the readings every month, but a few months later, an official told them he had not read their email and that he was dealing with 700 000 accounts.

The public protector was busy with the Roetses account for a long time and they were dealing with a certain official, but nothing happened.

“We even had a meeting with the local office of the municipal manager  and the Public Protector in a boardroom in the main building,“ reported Mrs Roets. She and her husband were promised on March 20 of 2015 that their account would be audited.

They were even given a cell phone number in case their power was cut.

“ …  the number does not exist,”says Mrs Roets. “When I asked for printouts for 2012, where our problems started, she told me to go to the main building and that I would have to pay for those statements.”

Another ELM official promised to help, but proved to be unreachable.

The Roetses can only  afford usage (R2500.00) plus R500.00 =3000.00 per month:

“We simply cannot afford the R4 800.00 they want us to pay off over 36 months … “

“What about other users that owe thousands, pay nothing and get away with it?” asks Mrs Roets. “My husband was unemployed from July and only got a job now, and now they want us to pay his entire salary on the account.

Mrs Roets says she has accumulated  four years of “evidence”  that has been forwarded to an ELM official, the Public Protector and even the  MBD.

“My worst fear is that our power will be cut,” says Mrs Roets, who has appealed to ELM not to cut.

Mrs Roets says she and Piet have tried to solve this issue since 2012, to no avail

“The water alone is R900.00 for this month,” says Mrs Roets, “and we could not possibly have used that amount …”

A sure sign of the desperation and despair wrought among people who claim to be wrongly billed is a call for extra-journalistic help from the Roetses: “Would you be willing to help us contact someone willing to Listen to us?” appeals Mrs Roets:

“The municipality wants to cut our power, and we have been struggling with this issue since 2012.”

ELM has advised her to “come in and sign the arrangement (to pay) form by no later than (April 14 ) before the April Billing” because “we cannot wait longer than this”.

No response had been received to an emailed enquiry to the Emfuleni Local Municipality (ELM) by the time this was filed.