Ballito residents blow a fuse at shock electricity accounts

Ballito residents who have been paying regular amounts for their electricity are shocked find these numbers have doubled or even trebled this month.

Pensioner Pat Rodel (70) told the Courier her average electricity account was between R2500 and R3000.

“But this month my account has skyrocketed to R6000,” said Rodel.

“How can this be? I live alone most of the year. They are thumb-sucking the amount and I think there’s something fishy going on here.”

Rodel posted her electricity account shock on Facebook, and many locals responded with similar complaints.

One resident said his average electricity account was R2000 a month but he received a whopper demand for R11000 this month.

Another Ballito resident, who asked not to be named, said she had been receiving accounts from between R1800 and R2200 a month for the past 11 months and she was terrified that she, too, would be slapped with a huge payment.

Ward councillor Colin Marsh said he had spoken to the billing department and said they had been basing accounts on average readings. Now people are getting the real readings.

“The meter readers have not been doing their jobs. They are unionised and are not happy with their working conditions and are holding the municipailty to ransom,” said Marsh.

The sudden high billing was first noticed by a couple of residents last month. The Courier has sent several requests to the electricity department for  explanations, but has not received any replies.

The question residents are asking, is why do they have to pay for a municipality staff problem?

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