Resident slapped with R2.1m power bill can sleep again

AN EAST London resident, incorrectly billed a staggering R2.1-million by Buffalo City Metro, can now sleep peacefully as the debacle has been sorted out.

In fact, Xolani Dezide’s account for his RDP house in NU11 Mdantsane has a credit balance of R229.

The security guard had been worried he could lose the family home due to the debt. The Daily Dispatch reported last week how Dezide was slapped with the bill in September.

Yesterday, Dezide told the newspaper he was relieved the saga had been resolved.

“I am so happy this nightmare is over. When I went to the Mdantsane City Mall municipal offices on Saturday, I was told my account was sorted out on Wednesday.

“I didn’t know how I would pay the money and had run out of options. I am very thankful to you [Daily Dispatch] for assisting me in sorting this out.”

Dezide was one of scores of residents complaining about the city’s billing system being in a shambles.

To try and resolve residents’ incorrectly billed accounts, the municipality embarked on a month-long campaign to rectify themm which ended last Saturday.

Commenting on Dezide’s bill, metro spokesman Sibusiso Cindi said: “The account has been corrected.

“However, the credit is not as a result of overpayment but instead of the subsidy that the consumer is receiving on a monthly basis.”

Earlier this year, hundreds of ratepayers marched to the East London City Hall, demanding answers about the city’s billing system. East London Ratepayers’ Association secretary Christo Theart accused the metro of not being transparent with its billing system.

“We want to know how the billing system works and unfortunately, without that information, we cannot react.

“People are suffering, nobody can deny that. This whole thing makes us unbelievably anxious, mad, crazy and frustrated. It helps no one for the municipality to acknowledge there is a problem. We need to know what the problem is,” he said.

Cindi could not say how many people responded to their month-long campaign to rectify incorrect bills as the city was still assessing the figures.

Asked what had been identified as the problem with the billing system, the spokesman said: “There is no problem with the billing system. [The] municipality is addressing billing-related queries with affected consumers.”

After assessing the response from residents, the metro will decide whether to extend the campaign to correct residents’ bills or not, Cindi said. —