A charge laid at the Bloemfontein Office of the Public Protector about the excessive billing for water by the Mangaung Municipality has now revealed a possibility that residents might pay more for water than what they’re supposed to.
DA Councillor, Rossouw Botes, says the municipality’s billing system is based on a sliding scale with tariff brackets that determine how much you must pay. The more you use, the more you pay.
The municipality is supposed to do meter readings every 30 days and do the billing according to the sliding scale. Instead, according to information OFM News received, the municipality only do billing every 45 days, resulting in residents showing a much higher consumption rate. This automatically places residents in a higher tariff bracket. Botes says residents, therefore, sits with higher water bills despite no hike in usage.
“The meter readers are not doing the correct follow-ups with every meter, which means they are pressurised to submit the new account, and they see they did not receive feedback from the meter readers and then they put in an estimate. They always estimate from the previous month,” says Botes.
Botes told OFM News the estimates are not always accurate and therefore consumers could end up paying more than they budgeted for, while the municipality is raking in the access payments. He says when overcharging is proved, the municipality takes up to two months to refund the credit to consumers. Botes says all this could be avoided if residences rather opt for pre-paid water meters.
OFM News sent detailed questions to the municipality. The department responded by saying they would reply to the questions at a later stage.
JOSCA HUMAN / OFM NEWS
