Measures to tackle issues in CHDM

THE Chris Hani District Municipality is putting a range of measures in place to address dissatisfaction from various organisations.

CHDM spokeswoman Thobeka Mqamelo, reacting to recent queries from The Rep, said engagement on queries from the Queenstown Residents’ and Ratepayers’ Association, Afriforum, business and the South African National Civic Organisation had taken place.

“This is a follow-up on a series of meetings that have taken place. Feedback was provided on issues of interest to the stakeholders, ranging from water account statements, historic debt and interest payable on accounts overdue, installation of household water meters and water metering system servers, update on installation of bulk water meters and general water and sanitation-related issues, and importantly, the Molteno sewerage spillage. (“Molteno residents irate over bad water”, The Rep, June 30).

Mqamelo said the issues included the printing of water accounts, following complaints of some consumers not receiving accounts for more than two years.

She said the printing of such statements was currently not taking place in-house as had previously been the case, with a service provider in place to print, fold and distribute the accounts.

Another issue was historic debt and interest payable on overdue accounts, with historic debt until June 30 this year put on hold pending a data-cleansing process due to start next month.

“The data-cleansing process seeks to rectify errors on information that was taken over from local municipalities as verification for its credibility was not done [for example, wrong erf numbers, ownership issues, ‘unreasonable amounts’, etc).”

The installation of household meters – with the areas of Elliot, Dordrecht, Molteno, Sterkstroom, Tarkastad, Hofmeyr and Cradock being targetedm – was also receiving attention.

“This work will be undertaken by a group of plumbers with members from the stakeholders playing a role to assist in the identification of malfunctioning meters.”

Stakeholder engagements were set to continue to provide feedback on municipal development and for improved relations with all stakeholders. – Rep reporter