LASCA accuses Tshwane of charging 'estimated bills' to residents
The Tshwane-based civic organisation, the Lotus Garden, Atteridgeville, Saulsville Civic Association (LASCA), has accused the city of charging estimated amounts on municipality bills while failing to deliver basic services.
LASCA says residents’ municipal bills have skyrocketed due to inaccurate readings done by consulting companies.
The organisation's president, Tshepo Mahlangu, says residents must take a stand and not pay bills which are estimated amid poor service delivery.
"We presented a memorandum to the MMC of Finance in November at Tshwane House, who promised to peruse and revert to us in 14 days.
"Unfortunately, they did not respond to that memorandum.
"We saw that the cards of all the residents who are using prepaid are blocked because the city wanted the residents to make arrangements on arrears debt.
"We found it very strange that while we were waiting for the memorandum to be responded to, the residents were severely punished by the city without even giving them notice of this.
"The main thing that was supposed to happen is that the executive mayor was supposed to respond to this memorandum. So we are going to march on the 24th of January.
"I personally had a meeting with the speaker of Tshwane, Mncedi Ndzwanana and (Finance) MMC Sutton, where we agreed on a certain amount to be paid by residents for consumption.”
However, Tshwane said LASCA has been preventing and harassing the city officials from doing their jobs in areas where they claim to represent residents.
The city's spokesperson, Selby Bokaba, said meter readers have been unable to access some properties for meter-reading purposes. As a result, some of the households ended up being estimated.
"Mahlangu has been on a crusade for a prolonged period calling for members of his organisation to consume municipal services such as water and electricity and not pay for it.
"The city has taken a principled position to not dignify his attention-seeking exercise with a response, but to simply note his utterances.
"However, it’s important for the city to share this very important perspective with the residents lest they get hoodwinked by falsehoods. LASCA has been actively preventing and harassing city officials from reading meters in areas where they purport to be representing residents.
"The city has been working hard to ensure that billings are accurate, and for that to happen, electricity and water meters have to be read regularly to capture actual and not estimated readings.
However, Mahlangu said Bokaba is trying to tarnish their brand.
"We are asking ourselves why this spokesperson is spreading malicious lies about issues he knows nothing about.
"Had he read the memorandum, he would be in a position to report accurate news. Saying we are advocating non-payment of services is a blatant lie.
"We are on record committing to pay for services we consume.”
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