City of Johannesburg denies the failure of its billing system
The DA Johannesburg Shadow MMC for Finance, Chris Santana, says the residents are being misled after the city released opposing statements about whether municipal statements are reflecting on its E-Venus billing system.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Johannesburg Shadow MMC for Finance and Ward 106 councillor Chris Santana is demanding that the City of Johannesburg hold officials accountable after issuing two contradictory statements about its E-Venus billing system.
An internal memo circulated to councillors on February 1 revealed that payments made since January 19 were not reflecting on customer accounts due to failed uploads between the E-Venus system and the Municipal Core Receipting platform.
The memo further instructed that no payments be accepted at Customer Service Centres while the system remained down. “Customers must be referred to third-party payment channels, such as EasyPay outlets and their respective banks,” it read.
Yet, on February 3, the city released a public statement denying any failures. “The City of Johannesburg has become aware of social media messages suggesting that customers’ municipal payments are not reflected on their statements. The city would like to clarify that these claims are incorrect,” the statement said, insisting that payments made through official channels were being processed and reflected.
Santana accused the city of misleading residents. “On February 1, an internal memo issued by the acting director of customer interface, Arthur Mbobo, confirmed that payments made since January 19 are not reflecting due to failed uploads. The memo further instructed staff to stop accepting payments at Customer Service Centres because the E-Venus billing system is offline.”
He added that despite this clear internal communication, the city’s finance department publicly denied any failures and claimed service centres were operating as usual. “This contradiction is unacceptable. Residents deserve honesty, not spin. Many have already paid their bills, only to be told they owe money, face disconnections, or must dispute balances caused by the city’s system failures. The city must acknowledge the breakdown instead of denying the lived experiences of residents.”
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In its February 3 statement, the city rejected allegations that customers could face disconnections. “Customers whose accounts are in good standing are not subjected to credit control disconnections in line with the city’s credit control policy,” it said, adding that service centres remained operational.
Santana has called on the city to withdraw the ‘misleading’ release, provide full transparency on the extent of the E-Venus failure, and give a realistic timeline for when payments will be processed. “I will escalate this matter to the mayoral committee and demand a full, transparent audit of the E-Venus outage, including the timeline and root causes of the failed uploads.”
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