Account nightmare
The owners of Môrester Supa Quick and Gearmax in 19th Avenue, Industria are angry and frustrated with the municipality after their electricity supply was cut off last Thursday.
POLOKWANE – The owners of Môrester Supa Quick and Gearmax in 19th Avenue, Industria are angry and frustrated with the municipality after their electricity supply was cut off last Thursday.
After battling for hours with the municipality, being referred from the one person to the next the business owners were able to get the municipality to switch their electricity back on after 15:00 Thursday afternoon.
According to the owners they lost a lot of business because of the municipality and said they would demand a reimbursement from the municipality for the loss of business.
The municipality replaced the electrical box servicing the two businesses last year and since then they have been experiencing problems with their municipal accounts.
Chris du Preez, owner of Môrester Supa Quick, said their account was never more than R14 000, but after the electrical box was replaced, their account had been between R40 000 and R80 000.
Their latest account was more than R46 000.
Du Preez reported the matter to the municipality, and he was reportedly promised that the problem would be rectified, but it never was.
“This is unacceptable and is causing me loss of income. The municipality must rectify their mistake immediately and reimburse us on the business that we are losing. This reflects badly on our company’s image, because we cannot help customers and have to explain to them why not. To our customers it seems that we are not paying our municipal account, when in fact we are and don’t ever miss a payment. We demand that the municipality set this problem straight,” an angry Du Preez said.
Leana Snyman, bookkeeper at Gearmax, said their account was never more than R4 000, but their recent municipal account was more than R316 000.
“Our municipal nightmare started in June last year with a municipal account of R28 000. Now the account is between R72 000 and R316 000. We realised that the largest portion of our municipal bill is water consumption of about R60 000. This is highly impossible as we are only four people working in the office. We have delegated employees who close the stop tap at night when we close business and who open it the next morning, so that we save water,” Snyman said.
Not far from these two businesses there is a municipal water pipe that burst more than two weeks ago, but was never fixed after Du Preez reported the water leak.
“The municipality did send some workers to come and look at the problem. They dug a hole and put barrier tape around it and left.
“They never came back. Who will be billed for the litres of water wasted at this leaking water pipe?” Du Preez wanted to know.
Malesela Maubane, a municipal spokesperson, said the electrical services department had dispatched inspectors to the two businesses in order to test the meters for accuracy, and also to verify whether the readings and meter numbers were correct.
“Customer care will then take the matter from there to correct the accounts if there are any discrepancies. The two businesses can also call Suzanne Malan, assistant manager of customer care and billing at (015) 290 2036 or visit her to resolve this issue,” Maubane said.
For billing issues, residents can contact the call centre at (015) 290 2542/3/5 or (015) 290 2916. Residents can also contact the chief clerks at (015) 290 2030/037/134 or (015) 290 2558.
Disconnections and reconnections must be directed to cash management and debt collections at (015) 290 2041/6/7, (015) 290 2060 or (015) 290 2296.
Residents can report electricity meter technical queries at (015) 290 2490.
