According to their billing statement, Greenhills home-owner Annetjie van Wyngaard and her partner Dave Janse van Vuuren use up to 1 000 litres of water every month – an issue they are disputing.

The couple said they have been over-billed for the past five months, and it’s costing them thousands of rand. The couple added that their bill shows a lot of discrepancies and differs from month to month.

According to Dave, it is unfair and ridiculous to be billed such exorbitant amounts and he doubts that the municipality reads the meter correctly.

He said further that the water meter was buried underground, and only during the Herald‘s visit to the house was it dug clear to show a reading.

“Every time we pay, the statement will come back showing another R2 000 or R3 000 outstanding. You can see how much they are billing us, it is all water on the statement! They have given us a water meter reading without actually looking at it,” he claimed.

He added, “They have not read our meter so the billing cannot be correct. We are paying a lot of money for this and it has to be fixed.”