Tshwane mayor discusses prepaid electricity and sanitation issues

1. Is there anything the mayor is doing with electricity breaching, which is becoming too much. What about the effect on loyal people? Sonugwane Michael Ntuli.

Mayor Msimanga: The revenue protection section and credit control are on a daily basis working on illegal electricity connections being removed and fines being imposed. There is, however, a challenge in some areas within Tshwane where access to disconnect is denied. In some instances, the loyal people are affected by these illegal connections. With the assistance of police, we are getting some resolved, but it can get tough.

2. Dear Mr Mayor, I want to ask the Tshwane mayor’s office why raw sewage has been allowed to flow into the bottom end of West street in Pretoria North for three days unchecked, with enough pressure to push the manhole cover off? TJ Hood, 463 West Street, Pretoria North.

Mayor Msimanga: Kindly note that 463 West Street was not reported, however we have received a complaint from 252 in the same street. Ref no: C 676325. That is the reason for the overflow of the sewer at 463 West Street. We had a backlog of 65 sewer blockages from Friday, July 21. 252 West Street was number 29 on the list and our standby team was supposed to attend to it on Sunday, but they were stuck in ward 90, as the community did not allow them to leave their area. Currently, the team is busy unblocking at 252 West Street and 463 West Street will follow.

3. My complaint is about the high cost of prepaid electricity. It seems as if residents billed monthly by the municipality get more electricity for less.

Last month, my neighbour and I did a comparison of our utilisation trends/patterns against how much each household was spending on electricity monthly.

On the surface, we seem to have the same electrical appliances and nothing extraordinary since we are not industries and just ordinary households.

While their geyser is never switched off and they also use an electrical heater and cook daily, we switch our geyser on and off intermittently and use a gas heater.

At the end of May, my neighbour was billed about R380, while we spent about R1 000 during the same period. The indicated amount of KWH (not an estimation) on their bill was more in comparison to the units we used.

When you buy R100 worth of electricity, you only receive 56.50 units/KWH. Buying R300 worth of electricity is even worse, because you get close to 169.5 worth of units.

While I understand the issue of VAT, my question is what happens to the rest of the units?

When we were advised by the municipality to go on prepaid, one of the advantages punted was that it was cost-effective, which – after using it for a few years now – I can safely say is not the case.

It makes sense why most of the people I have spoken to at work and in our circle swear about staying away from prepaid for as long as they can.

Townships are full of households buying prepaid electricity from illegal vendors, simply because they are not able to keep up with the high costs while receiving less units.

I would please like to revert back to being billed monthly by the municipality because evidence has shown such households pay less for using more electricity administered by Blue Label Telecoms.

I don’t care much about the deposit I paid to have the prepaid machine installed. I just wish for it to be taken out and be allowed to revert back to being billed monthly. Anonymous, Centurion.

Mayor Msimanga: It will be necessary for the client to have a meeting with both utility services for the replacement of the prepaid meter with a conventional meter and credit control for the explanation on our approved tariff structure.

As it stands, electricity is charged on the inclining block tariff as per the approved tariff structure. Electricity becomes more expensive if the consumption is higher.

NEXT WEEK: Mzwandile Masina, mayor of Ekurhuleni, responds to your questions.