Tshwane metro says there is no billing crisis, blames ‘human error’
"What does sometimes happen is that if customers have had estimates for a prolonged time and their meter is read, their bills can astronomically increase.”
The Tshwane metro has denied that there is a billing system crisis in Tshwane because bills were obtained through meter readings.
“We have meter readers continuously out in various areas, taking readings for either consecutive months to ensure accurate billing,” said Tshwane metro spokesperson Jordan Griffiths.
He said the metro had about 3.3 million residents and over 400 000 users on the e-Tshwane system.
“We don’t have instances in which customers are facing astronomical bills; however, what does sometimes happen is that if customers have had estimates for a prolonged time and their meter is read, their bills can astronomically increase.”
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He said this was because the estimates might have not been an accurate reflection of how much they were being billed through evaluations.
Griffiths said unreported and unmaintained water leaks in properties were also behind unpopular expensive utility bills.
“We need to collect the money that is owed to us as we bill it.
“Last year in November, meter readings were at 25%, we drove them to 79% last month and by the end of August we anticipate it to be higher.”
Griffiths blamed any utility bill problems on “human error” but said it was dealing with the issues aggressively through their customer consultation platforms.
He said the problem was dealt with through the metro’s group financial services, which engaged residents via a virtual platform to ensure customers’ safety during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The virtual outreach focuses:
– Account and billing queries, and corrections of estimations
– Credit control and assistance with repayment arrangements
– Repairs of water leakages and faulty electricity meters
– Property rates queries
– Indigent-related queries and registration
Griffiths denied that the metro was trying to “profit” from residents.
“We purchase electricity from Eskom and sell it on to residents and we have not tried to make a profit from this at all.”
He said the metro would never use electricity to recover debt.
“We are rather going to reclaim revenue by leasing land, cutting down on staffing costs and unnecessary expenditure.”
Griffiths said the metro was striving for a revenue collection rate of above 90%.
This comes after Action SA recently protested inaccurate billing in the Pretoria CBD, some of them higher than R111 000.
Action SA Tshwane mayoral candidate Abel Tau said over 30 billing receipts that amounted to over R1-million rand were being disputed.
The protest brought back concerns over the accuracy of Tshwane’s billing system.
Tau said the disputes came after a series of meetings with residents in areas such as Centurion, Eersterust, Hammanskraal and Mabopane.
Tau claimed that the metro had, last month announced its strides in cutting its debt by less than R2.5-billion of an initial R3.5-billion debt.
Tau said this money was fraudulently obtained by the metro, as it was inaccurately billed to customers.
“There are no meter readers who go about to obtain readings in this city. They have been estimating utility bills for more than a year in some areas.”
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