Scottburgh resident irked with Ugu wonders if water bills are a scam

An irate Scottburgh resident, who may now possibly be in credit with the Ugu District Municipality despite having had countless issues with the service provider for some 10 years, is calling for criminal processes to be considered.

Jeff White explained that when he and his wife initially moved to Scottburgh some years ago, it soon became evident that Ugu had not been charging them correctly, since their water meter had not been functional.

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The meter was subsequently replaced and a correction was made to the billing account following estimated water charges which had been ‘grossly over-stated’.

The problems, however, did not end there. “Serious problems continue to be experienced with the water billing system by Ugu and claims that the meters are read on a regular basis are completely incorrect,” he said. “We experienced a water leak on our property and, as a result, were billed for a massive 56-unit consumption, whereas our normal demand is only 12 units.”

Mr White then wrote a letter to Ugu in which he explained the situation. To date he has received no feedback and has been billed for the 56-unit consumption from that date some six months ago, despite maintaining a ‘normal’ consumption ever since.

Suspecting that he is not the only customer experiencing these issues, Mr White approached the Mail.

“We have brought this to the attention of Ugu, by way of letter and email and numerous telephone calls. Nobody has considered any action to remedy the situation. We are only told they recognised there was a problem and it would be fixed eventually. This situation has continued for most of this year and we are being continually billed for far in excess of our water consumption. The situation is not helped in any way by the fact that we have not received bills on a regular basis and we have had to telephone and request an account.”

According to Mr White, their water meter currently displays a reading  of 1180 units. However, according to the Ugu account records, the meter reading at April 3 was 1252 – meaning the Whites are technically in credit by some 72 units.

“At our normal usage, this amounts to six months of water that we have already paid for and for which we are in credit to Ugu Municipality,” he said.

Stating that it is normal for customers to slate the municipality for not being ‘capable or efficient’ in the conduct of their work, Mr White asks whether perhaps the municipality is conducting a scam of sorts, by which customers are systemically being defrauded of funds as a result of a ‘problem with the system’.

ALSO READ: Ugu ‘sorry’ for recent water crisis

“How many other ratepayers are being overcharged on a regular basis and is this a consistent system which has the municipality holding excess sums collected from the general public?” he asked.

“Perhaps a forum should be established to ascertain just how much the ordinary citizens of Scottburgh have ‘lost’ due the the inefficient system and to determine if and when the municipality will pay back the money for the excess water usage?”

Mr White explained that everything about the situation screamed that it was a scam which required urgent attention at the highest level of government to determine if this was in fact the case – an investigation which was open to the public, with criminal processes to be considered and the money returned to householders.

Ugu District Municipality has been contacted for comment but at the tome of writing,  no feedback had been received.

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