Greater Tzaneen residents who are disputing readings captured on behalf of the municipality are advised to take their own readings and compare with those sen by the municipality.

This after a lot of rate payers complained about a sudden sharp rise in their municipal bills.

They say after enquiring they were told there is a new company that reads the meters. Some increases are on average more than 200% and residents believe that their sudden high bills are based on an estimate rather than actual readings. Municipal spokesperson, Neville Ndlala said the municipality is aware of complaints from residents regarding the issue of high municipal bills.

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“The situation is as a result of some readings not captured on our system, therefore these accounts were not billed. They were however billed for two months hence the significant difference in the bills,” said Ndlala.

He said if there is some inaccuracies, the account department will be able to correct.

“We are working on ensuring that meters are read timeously and the information is captured and billed on a monthly basis. Please also note that each account is treated individually and on merit. There could be several factors that affect bills.”

Ndlala advised concerned residents to take their own meter readings and compare so that incorrect bills could be fixed.

He added that the new tariff increase of 5,2 per cent will come into effect from the end of the month.