Please pay your bills – or else, metro tells residents
The metro said this was to avoid credit control action.
Please pay your municipal bills – or else risk being disconnected, the Tshwane metro told residents.
“We are aware of the challenges that residents are facing in honouring their financial obligations to the municipality [because of the lockdown],” said metro spokesperson Lindela Mashigo.
“But we still need to collect revenue to be able to continue providing much-needed services to the community.”
The call came as the metro introduced an incentive and relief programme aimed at enabling residents to bring their municipal accounts up to date the end of June 2020.
Despite this relief programme, the metro has still endured a low revenue recovery.
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“It is now time to accelerate our revenue recovery programme to enable us to meet our constitutional obligations to residents,” said Mashigo.
He said in order to avoid credit control actions and debt collection measures, residents were urged to continue paying for their municipal accounts in full and on time at any approved external paypoint or third party.
“Account holders can also visit the e-Tshwane platform to access their statements or the WhatsApp to get their balance owing.”
Mashigo said the WhatsApp service chat platform was also operational.
“Through registering on WhatsApp, it allows the municipality to share, in confidence, and receive information from stakeholders.”
Through the WhatsApp service chat, ratepayers are allowed to view and pay their bills via the platform as well as request application forms, access specific links and obtain contact information.
Residents and businesses should save the number 087-153-1001 on their phone and WhatsApp the word ‘Hi’ to access this service from the comfort of their home or office.
The application used end-to-end encryption to guarantee privacy when engaging with the metro.
Those experiencing affordability challenges could make a payment arrangement request by sending an email to creditcontrol@tshwane.gov.za. Terms and conditions apply.
Residents can also apply for payment relief through the incentive and relief programme, which is designed to help them manage their municipal accounts.
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Tshwane urged residents and customers to visit www.tshwane.gov.za for more information.
This comes as the DA Tshwane Mayoral Candidate Randall Williams alleged that residents were receiving outrageously high bills, which far exceed the meter readings they had submitted.
“Multiple cases of residents having paid their accounts in full and then receiving notification that they will be cut off if they do not pay their accounts are also being reported.
“Some residents are reporting bills that are up to 10 times what they would normally pay, they are being threatened with having their electricity cut off.”
He said it was deeply concerning that already within the first month of implementing the metro’s new budget there were dozens of complaints of errors being made on the billing of residents in the metro.
“Under the administrators, the metro is also bleeding cash due to under-collections of revenue, with an estimated 30% of customers not paying their accounts on time.”
He said if the metro failed to issue bills correctly this would likely increase residents’ refusal to pay the exorbitant and incorrect bills that are being levied.
“This will further aggravate the already strained financial situation in which the administrators have placed the metro.”
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