Unemployed family threatened with final letter of demand
“I went to the municipality office after receiving the bill and laid a complaint and Tshwane officials were send twice to my house to check the meter and the officials concluded that there is no problem,”
An underestimation of a water bill has seen a Mamelodi family having to fork out over R30 000 to settle their account with the metro.
The metro’s utility services department held an audit in September last year and found no discrepancies with the bill of of 46-year-old Lorraine Mathika of extension 18.
Then Mathika and her family recently received a final demand letter from the metro, demanding they pay a total amount of R33 719.98 for water.
Tshwane metro spokesperson Lindela Mashigo said the audit findings revealed no leakages on the water meter and a total usage of 17kl from 4 to 29 September.
“The customer’s account readings for 11 August 2020 were underestimated. The customer then submitted water readings on 4 September 2020 which were corrected,” said Mashigo.
He said this resulted in a high-water usage/bill as these were now based on actual readings and the customer’s average history usage is 70kl per 30 days which is a high consumption.
“Furthermore the customer is making sporadic payments towards the account with five short payments received in 2020 from October to December 2020.”
However, Mathika said she was shocked about the amount the Tshwane metro said they owed.
“The bill is higher than we have anticipated and we can’t afford to pay the amount,” said Mathika.
“I am still shocked at how the amount has risen so high, because last year before the lockdown the bill was just R200 for water,” she said.
Mathika said all along she was paying around R200 if she used a lot of water.
However, this all changed when she received a municipality bill showing that she owed R22 222.55 for water – only in September.
“I went to the municipality office after receiving the bill and laid a complaint. Tshwane officials were send twice to my house to check the meter and the officials concluded that there is no problem,” said Mathika.
The following month she received another high bill for water which has increased to R27 331.62.
Mathika said her family was without work at this stage and depended on temporary jobs in the community.
She said she lives with her three children and they don’t use much water.
“Every day in the morning we fill up a water bucket and we use the water in the bucket the whole day.
“I buy prepaid electricity every month and I pay my municipality bill every month on time and it has never been this high,” she said.
Mashigo said customers can who have issues with their bills can apply for payment relief through the metro’s incentive and relief programme.
“It is designed to help you manage your municipal account.”
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