MMC of Committee for Environment and Infrastructure Services (MMC), Matshidiso Mfikoe, visited the South Hills Recreation Centre to discuss billing and credit control on Tuesday, June 21.
The ward 57 meeting was organised by the ANC David Webster branch and provided an opportunity for the MMC to explain the importance of paying utility bills without fail and how that would help extend service provision and improve the City’s infrastructure towards an African World-Class City.
MMC Mfikoe explained the Expanded Social Package (ESP), which is aimed at assisting economically depressed homeowners such as the unemployed and elderly pensioners who find themselves in a situation where they cannot afford to pay the municipality.
SASSA pensioners were advised to apply and benefit from the City’s 100 per cent rebates discount on rates and taxes, refuse and sewerage, and 100 per cent rebates on sewerage and refuse.
MMC Mfikoe instruct the representatives of the City’s Joburg Water and City Power to fix faulty and leaking meters in the entire ward 57 and other areas but also to treat the community with highest level of professionalism and courtesy.
But the community did pull any punches as they called on the City to move away from billing based on estimates to accurate meter reading and also called on the City to treat people in the suburbs and in the townships the same in the spirit of one city one tax base.
Local residents also brought to the attention of the MMC the fact that many street lights are not working even though they were reported. They also reported the continued challenges facing the City flats and challenges of crime and drugs in the ward.
People also complained about the removal of water meters as a way of credit control and how that affected people by preventing them from having water. The story of a local 74-year-old homeowner whose water meter was removed in January was brought to light and the elderly was registered for ESP and she is now reconnected.
*Information courtesy of the City of Johannesburg.
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