Metro admits error after service requests wrongly marked as complete
Damaged hydrants and leaking pipes were marked as repaired, despite no work on the ground, prompting the metro to strengthen quality checks.
The Tshwane metro has admitted to an error in its service request system, which occurred last month in the north of Pretoria.
It has described the incident as an isolated case but acknowledged that gaps in oversight and capacity have contributed to growing frustrations around service delivery.
Ward councillors in the north raised concerns after noticing that service requests, including reports on damaged fire hydrants, leaking pipes and road maintenance, were being marked as completed, despite no visible work being done on the ground.
This comes after a fire hydrant on Daan de Wet Nel Drive was flagged in the metro’s records as fixed ,even though no repairs had taken place.
Metro spokesperson, Lindela Mashigo, explained that this specific case was the result of a system capture error during staff training.
“This is not reflective of the metro’s standard practice but rather an isolated incident. The matter has been addressed, corrective measures have been implemented, and reinforced oversight is now in place to ensure this does not recur,” Mashigo said.
Ordinarily, Tshwane relies on foremen to inspect completed work before closing a service request.
Mashigo conceded that this verification process is limited in practice.
“The responsible foreman conducts site inspections on work completed to verify the completeness. However, this quality control measure is often limited to sampling of tasks because of the extent of the area that the foreman is required to cover,” he said.
This admission highlights a critical oversight gap, as foremen often oversee large areas, making it difficult to verify each reported service issue physically.
As a result, ward councillors argued that requests are being closed without sufficient evidence that the problems have been fixed.
Another source of frustration has been the metro’s handling of duplicate service requests.
According to Mashigo, only duplicate references are closed or cancelled without physical work being done.
“Generally, no reference numbers are closed without being attended to,” he insisted.
Despite this assurance, Lenise Breytenbach, Ward 50 councillor, and Ward 98 councillor, Mickey van der Westhuizen, maintain that premature closures are not isolated, pointing to multiple cases across different services where the closure of a request did not reflect the reality on the ground.
This perception, they argue, erodes confidence in the metro’s reporting system and creates the impression that service delivery targets are being manipulated.
“The metro in Region 1’s water department closed a reference number of a fire hydrant, but it was never fixed or attended to since 2023. It has now been unattended for almost two years,” said Van der Westhuizen.
To address concerns, Tshwane said it is strengthening both oversight and staffing.
Supervisors and foremen have been mandated to conduct quality control checks on all tasks, with the municipality pledging to reduce the geographic areas each foreman is responsible for by adding more staff.
“The metro is currently [increasing] the staff complement of the section to reduce the area of coverage of supervisors,” explained Mashigo.
He added that these measures are aimed at improving efficiency and restoring confidence in the integrity of the metro’s service request system.
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