Some Tshwane residents went into panic mode this weekend after receiving incorrect SMS messages demanding payment of their municipality accounts.

These included residents who were not in arrears.

Tshwane metro has apologised for this and attributed it to a technical glitch.

“The metro experienced a system glitch when its SMS programme was reset. We are in the process of formulating an SMS to send to all affected customers offering an apology and to implement checks to ensure this does not happen again,” Tshwane metro spokesperson Lindela Mashigo said.

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Several residents complained of receiving incorrect messages of demands for payment on their utilities accounts and credit control accounts; including people who paid-off their debts and had accounts on credit.

The metro has since conducted an audit to establish the number of people affected.

Tshwane metro ward councillor Siobhan Muller explained to residents that there was a scheduled maintenance on the servers (computer programme) over the weekend and the SMS server was part of this maintenance.

“When the servers were restarted after the maintenance it triggered the old SMS messages to be sent out,” she said.

Muller said the metro was taking steps to avoid such glitches in the future.

Numbers to report service delivery issues: Tshwane toll-free number: 080 111 1556. This toll-free number is available free of charge for all residents to report complaints.

Alternatively call 012 358 9999 or email CustomerCare@Tshwane.gov.za.