The ANC-led Mogale City Local Municipality has recently slapped residents with a hefty bill payable on 31 July 2020, which was rationalised as the ‘under-estimated”’ usage for April and May 2020, due to meters only being read in June 2020.
Batho Pele, which means people first, is an ideal whereby governmental institutions are centralised around the needs of the people, and that the interests of the people are of paramount importance and therefore are to be considered first. The Revenue Hall has suffered major difficulties in the preceding weeks, which negatively affected the ability of the residents to make the necessary arrangements.
Whether closed for Covid-19 decontamination or services interrupted by protest action, residents have been left in the lurch, and are simply expected to cough up and pay. This is unacceptable, and patently prejudices households who are already on strict budgets.
The residents are the life blood of the municipality and the only reason the municipality exists. The households are the revenue streams of the municipality, and need to be treated with the necessary respect they deserve, which includes not simply disconnecting because the municipality didn’t estimate correctly. If the municipality wants timeous payment, they should ensure that meters are read timeously and that accounts are billed correctly.
The same courtesy should be extended to the residents, whom have done nothing wrong. Many of the officials are facing administrative bottlenecks, and the 30 per cent capacity constraint only worsens matters, which means that extraordinary circumstances require exceptional solutions. The DA would like to express their gratitude to the officials who are going above and beyond their duties to assist. Due to the inadequate ability of Mogale City to provide the necessary services, we therefore propose that a temporary suspension on all disconnections regarding estimated readings be effected, for the same period that blanket estimations were done. Mogale City outsources its disconnection service, meaning money is flowing outside of the municipality.
We have for some time been calling for the insourcing of critical services, so that the finances are not depleted unnecessarily by contracted services. Disconnections should only be used as a last resort after all other avenues and options have been exhausted, and not as first-instance bully tactics.
Habitual non-payment is an entirely different matter from once-off lump sum underestimation corrections, and should be treated accordingly.
Residents are willing to pay for what they use, once verified, and simply require the municipality to show some caring, understanding and conduct due diligence, not only for the sake of the residents, but also for the long-term sustainability of the municipality itself.
