Anger boils over after sky high municipal bills
Anne Botha wrote: 'I feel that if we were not at home for a hole month and use gas for heat howcome the bill is so high.Why can't we get municipal meters as all the rural areas have them,even in the cape and some in kwazulu natal have these meters.Are the municipality sceared they'll go bankrupt.'
Residents yet again took to social media to voice their outrage over soaring municipal bills for the month of July.
This post by Debra Fenech, summed up the reaction of most residents:
‘Anyone else get a shock with their municipality bill? I don’t use heaters and mine has gone up by R956.73 this month. How is one meant to survive? This is way beyond ridiculous.’
A quick look at the bill confirmed that Mrs Fenech and her husband apparently used double the amount of electricity units used in July compared to June.
“I don’t understand. My husband and I work six days a week, and we live alone in our house,” she said. “I don’t mind paying the availability because we make use of the services. But how could it possibly have doubled?”
Further reports indicated that, alarmingly, some resident’s bills were less than the previous month.
“Our bill went down by R100,” said one resident. “I don’t understand how it works. I heard about the bills and some people had bills go up by more than R1 000. I was very scared to get my bill.”
Mrs Fenech also lamented the barely understandable format of the bills.
“I have accounting experience, so I could understand it after I looked at it for a while. What about the average person, they wouldn’t be able to make sense of it,” she said.
Our readers had their say online:
Rajen wrote: ‘we have to pay 4 da new building!’
Anne Botha wrote: ‘I feel that if we were not at home for a hole month and use gas for heat howcome the bill is so high.Why can’t we get municipal meters as all the rural areas have them,even in the cape and some in kwazulu natal have these meters.Are the municipality sceared they’ll go bankrupt.’
Rob E wrote: ‘Check for winter tariffs maybe?. In PE it can double your bill over the 3 winter months, June – August.’
Belinda Cadle wrote: ‘Our water & lights account is nearly R5000. I am dreading this months account If there is another increase. It makes no difference on our account when we are cautious with heaters, etc. it just keeps going up and up!!!! Meters are definitely necessity.’
Heksie wrote: ‘Well this month IS the month when all municipal rates and tariffs go up, but the sooner the public realize that they are being ripped off by council and do something about it the better. We moan and grumble but we pay and get used to it. It is about time ALL the paying consumers stood together and did something. Remember we are paying for the majority of consumers who do not pay a cent. Not to mention the 70 per cent of water that is lost or unaccounted for’
“This time of year is always painful for electricity consumers,” said Mayor, Afzul Rehman.
“Unfortunately our cold winters force us to consume more electricity. We need to find more ways to save this valuable and now expensive commodity. As a municipality, we have done our utmost to keep tariffs down. However, we purchase electricity from Eskom, and are regulated the National Energy Regulations South Africa (NERSA).”
