Tshwane vows to fix water, electricity billing crisis
The City of Tshwane says it has studied and is already in the process of implementing recommendations made by Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane in a report on the municipality’s water and electricity billing mechanisms.
Mkhwebane released her findings on Friday following a probe on the city’s shortcomings.
The city has previously come under fire for inaccurate and inflated billing for municipal rates and services.
The estimation of water meter readings by the capital has also been a bone of contention for unhappy residents.
Mkhwebane gave the city 60 days to respond.
Tshwane’s chief of staff, Jordan Griffiths says the city has made some headway in addressing the billing crisis.
“The report itself is not particularly damning; it’s merely a factual assessment of the billing in the City of Tshwane,” Griffiths said.
“They have been looking at this matter for some time but in between then and now, the city implemented a number of measures to ensure billing is more accurate.”
Griffiths believes the administrators brought in to run the city last year while the Tshwane Council had collapsed are to blame for the squabbles with residents.
“Critically when the DA-led administration took office the first thing that was implemented is meter reading which ensures meter readers go out and check your meters on a monthly basis and we’ve increased accuracy substantially,” he said.
“Executive mayor Randall Williams has also started an aggressive rollout of prepaid meters because it not only leads to more stable readings but also leads to more stable revenue collection and assists the city with debt management.”
In recent months, Tshwane has been faced with financial difficulties causing some disruption to service delivery.
While Griffiths admits to the issues, he added the city was well on its way to financial recovery
“The city has experienced substantial financial recovery in the last few months.
“It’s very easy to very quickly compromise the city’s finances, it takes far longer to stabilise them once they have been compromised but that is what we are doing, and we are well on our way to stabilise the city’s finances.”
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