With the postal strike in full swing last year I, like many others, did not receive my monthly account from Mogale City.
I own a house in Featherbrooke Estate, which I rent out (I live in Mpumalanga).
Didn’t think this was too much of a problem as I knew what rates were due and kept up the payments without fail.
What I hadn’t taken into consideration was an annual rates increase and with the posted accounts coming through after delays of four months, the increase amounted to about R4 000 that I hadn’t paid by December.
Instead of notifying me of the problem via email/ telephone, the municipality just posted warning letters which, of course, I didn’t receive.
With four months worth of increases not paid, they cut off the water.
I should mention here that my tenant, like most residents on the estate, pre-pays for her water.
Obviously, the tenant contacted me about the disconnected water and after many phones calls back and forth, the water was reconnected after I showed proof of payment for the arrears (of the rates increase) and for a reconnect fee of R1 000!
Amazing how they can email me the account showing the arrears but not on a preemptive monthly basis.
Now knowing what the new monthly rates were (a 28 per cent increase by the way), I thought I was okay until the next round of increases later on in the year.
Wrong!
I hadn’t taken into account, the new ‘admin’ fee that the municipality, in its wisdom, has decided to levy.
This additional amount of R152 per month I didn’t pay because I didn’t know about it; back to absence of posted accounts).
Again, not a problem for our friendly municipality, they cut off the water again because I had short-paid the monthly accounts to the tune of R456 (three months worth of ‘admin’ fee).
More hassles and a reconnect fee of R 1000 again and the water is back on!
Trying to escalate this matter to senior people within the municipality is an exercise in futility.
I have had a single response (after sending emails to five different people) from one gentleman who describes himself as a team leader in the Marketing and Communications Department.
It took him three weeks to reset a password for me in order that I might retrieve my accounts by logging on to the municipality website.
Instead of ripping off homeowners to obtain more revenue, I would suggest the municipality starts cutting costs by getting rid of departments that add no value to its ratepayers.
A good place to start would be the Marketing, Communications and CRM (I doubt they even know the meaning of CRM) Department because they are totally ineffective.
