Thumbs up for billing system probe
Overbilled accounts must be rechecked
“YES, you were overbilled,” the front page article in The Mercury, October 13, refers.
It is time all our accounts were investigated.
I know of several occasions when my electricity meter has been read, yet the following month’s account reflects “no reading”.
Why bother to send a meter reader out if his readings are not taken into account? SHIRLEY LOUW uMhlanga
Will we get back the money we are owed?
“YES, you were over-billed, mayor tells ratepayers” (The Mercury, October 13) refers.
It is all very well to launch an investigation, but my question is, will eThekwini Municipality do the right thing and pay back the money? DEANNE COLLINS
Glenwood
eThekwini council staff are uncaring
THE article on overbilling refers.
You have published letters lamenting the lack of response from eThekwini officials to queries raised.
Yet, you publish a fatuous statement from the city’s chief financial officer that ratepayers must “contact the council”. This is the height of irony. eThekwini staff are uncaring and arrogant. M CASSIM Wandsbeck
SA’s economy in need of a little help
A FEW thoughts on the minimum wage.
South Africa’s economy is not in the doldrums, it is worse… It is in a terrible state.
The reasons for this serious matter have been debated repeatedly – inter alia, the poor global economy, the exploitation by mining and other companies of labour, the damaging labour laws which were generally seen as too restrictive, questionable policies, enriching the wrong people through black economic empowerment, and so on.
Pillaging the country’s resources is proceeding on a grand scale: If it is not stripping our coastline of abalone, then it is depleting the crayfish reserves or the fish stock.
Rhinos, elephants, lions, antelope – all the country’s natural assets – are being plundered.
Contraband cigarettes are being sold at at R6 to R10 a packet when the duty to Sars alone is about R16 a packet apparently is costing Sars billions in lost revenue. (Perhaps it will help if this duty is reduced to a low base of a few rand again.)
The scale of theft by generalised and gradually institutionalised corruption, aggravated by the demons of state capture, drains Sars of trillions of rand and makes the burden on the regular taxpayer impossible.
All of that is common knowledge, but a way should be found to communicate the consequences of the above effectively and continuously to the electorate across the board, co-operative efforts by all parties in this regard would be welcome.
Despite the fact that Bell Pottinger and KPMG turned around on their vastly damaging reports, while false slogans like “white monopoly capital” refuse to go away – the damage is entrenched. Are there solutions? One idea that comes to mind is to modify the labour laws: Keep them for mines, state-owned enterprises or whatever, but relax these laws for people with incomes less than a certain ceiling, so that entrepreneurs from poor or middle-class incomes can feel free to employ, hire and fire. In other words why not make it easy for less well-off people to get started?
There are millions of people in the country who would love to have IT IS encouraging to note that eThekwini is “interrogating” the effectiveness and value for money in respect of its RMS billing system.
Given the history of missed deadlines, a no-name spaza type software developer picked from obscurity in India (whose track record I’m still trying to figure out in the midst of the software giants in India), the endless cost overruns and shifting of goalposts regarding a job, just as there are millions reluctant to employ because of the well-intended, but damaging, minimum wage restrictions. How do we help South Africans get and hold a job?
As for corruption and theft, those are moral issues only to be tackled by an informed electorate.
Our constitution pre-supposed a decent, honourable, honest Parliament… That the present situation could arise was unthinkable by the people who wrote the constitution.
BEN SMIT Melkbosstrand
Don’t get ripped off by vehicle insurers
IN LIGHT of the recent flooding, and the consequences for the many car owners who have been affected, the following might apply.
My car was written off earlier this year thanks to being rear-ended by a speeding 4x4 vehicle on the freeway. The process of dealing with the insurer then began. Things went fine until they offered me a payment that I felt sure was below the real value.
I contacted the dealership and obtained a printout of the value of my car, which was almost R10 000 more than the insurer wanted to pay me.
I enquired from the insurer how they reached their value and why it was so much lower than the real market value, and of course the representative had no idea. In terms of the Promotion of Access to Informa- the original contract offering and the final product.
Also see which officials and politicians were behind this scheme.
Among the problems are two issues:
First, try explaining to a tenant how much is owing when the electricity billing is about 20 lines (and here the single billing system was best).
Municipal prepaid residential tion Act, 2000, I have a right to know how they calculated the value of my car. Insurers appear to have their own database of car values that has nothing to do with the dealership value, which has considerable implications for replacing a vehicle.
To all those whose vehicles have been written off, photograph your car licence disk, take it along to your brand dealer, and get a proper value before you accept what the insurer wants to give you. LOUISE MARTIN
Durban
Progress made, but a long way to go
RADICAL economic transformation – a way to go.
The establishment of the Cooperative Financial Institution to service co-operatives belonging to current and exited youth of the National Rural Youth Service Corps, which is a youth-based programme of the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform, has clearly defined the meaning of youth empowerment and radical economic transformation.
With the current youth unemployment soaring to 55.9%, strengthening youth-owned co-operatives in the form of establishing a Co-operative Financial Institution will go a long way in stimulating entrepreneurship growth and the advancement of small, medium and micro-sized enterprises, which are a priority of government. In the electricity will eliminate so many unnecessary manpower and software inputs, hence requiring a smaller system.
Second, when multiple deposits are made (sometimes by tenants) they are reflected as one amount.
In the previous system deposits were reflected as various transactions.
Cash and credit card (payments) are reflected as one amount. long run this will also dent youth unemployment in South Africa.
The National Rural Youth Service Corps youth will now have a sense of ownership on how they create their own wealth, as well as playing a vital role in the socio-economic development of their communities.
The Co-operative Financial Institution offers a platform to operate automated services and issue its members’ statements, as well as providing back office support that includes accounting services. This is prudent financial management that has eluded the grasp of emerging black businesses for a long time.
Initiatives such as these have the potential to dismantle monopoly capital structures, which killed liberal competition in all spheres of the economy.
De-concentration of ownership of the economy, with more emphasis on black ownership, especially among youth, in the new and old sectors of the economy that include agriculture, mining, manufacturing and infrastructure development, will go a long way in achieving radical economic transformation. THEMBA MZULA HLEKO
Pretoria
Early closing no longer makes sense
THE SHONGWENI Farmers Market has grown in leaps and bounds since it first began way back in 1998 with 12 stalls selling food and fresh produce. Very confusing. My gut feel is eThekwini was sold a dud and this is going to end up on the scrap heap of junk software.
The question to ask is: why does the city not reduce input requirements, stick to tried and tested vendors and adopt an approach of “learning and copying” from the best? MUHAMMAD OMAR Durban North
Then, it made sense to start at 6.30am and finish at 11.30am. However, today it is a completely different ball game. The fresh produce now makes up a fraction of the multitude of food and arts and crafts stalls. By 11.30am the market is in full swing. Many people travel from afar to attend this market.
It seems such a shame and a waste of further opportunity to shut up shop at that time. Why not let the food stalls offer breakfast and lunch?
What a lot of effort goes into setting up these stalls! Some stallholders have to start preparations at 3am in order to be ready by 6.30am. Would it not make sense to open at 7am and close at 2pm? HAZEL LODETTI
Athlone Park
Dove advertisement is in no way racist
I HAVE watched the Dove advert. I don’t know how many of your readers have. It shows absolutely nothing racist and is in fact a celebration of the diversity of beauty of women, regardless of race.
Unilever may have much to apologise for in the way they integrate diversity into their corporate structure. But the ad is not racist. Had it been three white women – a blonde, a brunette and a ginger – the same people would find it racist because only white models were used. JOHN DRAKE
Winklespruit