Residents complain of exorbitant electricity bills
Electricity consumers in Tzaneen have been left in shock by a surge in electricity charges for October.
Some residents say they were shocked to receive their electricity accounts that showed exorbitant charges.
The Herald had received several complaints about excessive electricity bills.
They accuse the meter reading company of estimating their electricity usage instead of taking actual figure from their meter boxers.
A resident of Florah Park who pays an electricity bill of between R400 to R500 a month, has received a bill of over R800 for the month of October. A resident say she went to the municipal offices to inquire about excessive electricity bills, but no one was able to provide a convincing answer.
A residents of Aqua Park say on average she normally pays between R 1 200 and R1 300 a month, so she was shocked when she received a bill for R4 841 for October.
“When I called, the guy in the accounts department said I owe R 3 933-97 but the statement sent to me shows that I owe R4 841-97. These guys are estimating,” she explained.
Municipal spokesperson, Neville Ndlala conceded that the municipality did not capture readings for the months of July and August due to system challenges but estimated the tariff based on previous consumption per consumer.
“So for the bills of July and August, the charges were based on estimates or average score. Due to this system, some consumers were undercharged and others overcharged, and this was due to the fact that it was winter where electricity consumption is higher than average,” he said.
He said that in case where a consumer was undercharged the money that was not charged was then added to the most recent statement after the actual readings were captured.
“So for an example if it is estimated that a consumer uses 320 Kilowat (kw) per month, that consumer will be billed 320kw for the month where readings are not available. So in our case, the readings were not captured for two months, a consumer will for instance have been billed 740kw for the two months,” he explained.
He added that when the recorded exceed the 320 kw per month average, the consumer must pay for the extra kw charged.
Ndlala called on residents who received abnormally high amount to visit or call the municipal offices so that the charges can be explained to them.
