Water bill continues to be a problem for JSPCA
Thanks to the BackaBuddy campaign about R30 000 was donated towards the water bill.
“The City of Johannesburg is not in the position to offer debt relief or a debt write-off based on the NPO status of the organisation.”
After a leak was detected recently on the JSPCA premises in Reuven they were forced to pay a bill of R545 203.36 for the water that was wasted during the leak.
Through their BackaBuddy campaign, the JSPCA has raised just under R30 000.00 towards the bill.
The Comaro Chronicle has approached the City of Johannesburg (CoJ) for comment on this matter.
Michelle Ashburner, from the Stakeholder and Communications Management Office of the MMC for Finance, said, “The City of Johannesburg notes the public concern over a social media and fundraising campaign for the Johannesburg SPCA and their high water bill. The high water bill was flagged in May with Joburg Water, after which investigations by JW technical teams ruled out the possibility of a fault with the water meter or city infrastructure providing water to the property.
“The NPO is pleading for debt relief due to them being oblivious to an underground water leak on the SPCA’s grounds that was identified and repaired by a private contractor employed by them on the advice of JW.
According to the city’s bylaws, customers are solely responsible for water wastage on their premises.
“Because business customers are billed on sewer according to their water use, reversals on excess sewer usage billing cannot be done. The City of Johannesburg offers payment arrangements to consumers to manage their municipal bills, which should relieve the consumer in this instance.”
Ashburner continued, “While the city empathizes with all users it remains the responsibility of the owner to not only control their usage but also monitor infrastructure faults within their property.
“The City of Johannesburg is not in the position to offer debt relief or a debt write-off based on the NPO status of the organisation. However, we propose to the Johannesburg SPCA, as we do with all our customers who have similar issues, that they approach our revenue department to enter into an acknowledgement of debt (AOD), an option to be entered into as part of a payment plan with specific terms manageable by the Johannesburg SPCA.”
Liana Marx, communication officer for the JSPCA said, “The JSPCA would like to thank every person and business who supported our water fundraiser. We had a huge amount of support and our BackaBuddy campaign also did extremely well. Thank you to everyone who offered their kind assistance in handling the case for us, also thank you to the councillor, Micheal Sun, who gave his input. We have approached attorneys and will be taking the case further.”
Marx further said, “The amount of support we received was overwhelming. It is a pity we had to pay it to the council as that amount of money could have helped us sterilise a large number of animals and help animals in distress.
“Due to this account, our winter outreach was put on hold as we had to secure funds to pay the account. The funds that were put towards outreaches to pay for the dewormer, tick and flea treatment and vaccinations and the giving out of food parcels and blankets, were sadly put on hold due to this.
“But we will not let this put a damper on helping animals and we will be doing an outreach next week to give back and support the community, as the community supported us.”
If you still want to donate to the JSPCA you can either do it on BackaBuddy or contact Liana Marx at pr@jhbspca.co.za for more information.
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