WARD councillors in Berea and Morningside are encouraging residents to contact them if they have complaints concerning municipal bills.
Ward 31 councillor, Christopher Pappas, said he has been inundated with queries from residents regarding bills.
“I have asked the revenue service what is causing the high amounts on the bills and the response is that residents have been billed using an average monthly amount. Residents are now receiving the actual amount from meter readings dating back to the last time the reading was taken, usually three months,” he said.
Pappas said the revenue department had informed him that there was nothing wrong with the new Revenue Management System the city is using and claimed there had only been two incidents of wrongful billing.
Ward 27 councillor, Martin Meyer, said the Head of Revenue challenged him to to provide him with 20 examples from across the city to show him there was a problem. “I told him that I would easily find 20 examples from the ward alone,” said Meyer.
Meyer urged residents who have had an issue with their utilities bill to e-mail him at ward27@ethekwini.org.
Put in the subject line: eThekwini Billing Query – and your account number. Attach a copy of the utilities bill that is wrong and in the e-mail give your name, address, and what your bill was on average before.
Pappas said if residents experienced any problems or had questions about their bills, they could send their questions to revline@durban.gov.za.
Ensure to include your account number, current billed amount and past 12 months billing.
“It is very important that you do this as soon as possible because the department will start to cut people off from next week,” said Pappas.
