Durban’s uncivil civil servants
IF it’s true that he who pays the piper calls the tune, then our local piper – the e-Thekwini Municipality – appears to be leading thousands of paying ratepayers on a merry dance to nowhere.
The council sends out bills for rates and utility services every month, which the vast majority of residents pay diligently for fear of having their water and lights cut off or their properties taken away.
Yet the council fails to provide ratepayers with cogent and credible answers when they ask how our hard-earned money is being spent.
A case in point is the city’s new multimillion rand Revenue Management System (RMS). Hardly a day passes without residents complaining about exorbitant and erratic electricity bills, and although the city has in the past denied there’s anything wrong with the system, it was forced to concede on its Facebook page this week that “it understood how frustrating the billing system has been on the residents”.
And the errors the RMS makes in its calculation are not just in the order of tens, hundreds or thousands. It was reported last week that a Durban pensioner, Kasturee Lachman, who lives in Sparks Road, got the shock of her life when she received an electricity bill for R4.7 million.
To make matters worse, this was not the first experience of blundering incompetence for the 67-year-old woman, She also received a R229 000 bill for August rates despite her payments being up to date.
What is even more frustrating is the attitude of city officials when such complaints are brought to their attention by the media.
A typical response has been: Sorry, we don’t discuss account details of residents or customers with a third party. If a customer is not satisfied with our RMS system, they can contact our revenue call centre.
Our city can do without such uncivil civil servants, who fail to realise the importance of good customer service.
When residents and ratepayers experience poor service and believe, with some justification, that their complaints are being ignored, they have a right to ask questions and demand answers.
They want their elected representatives and paid officials to be transparent and accountable for their actions.
And while on the subject of accountability, when can we expect the real truth behind the e-Thekwini Municipality’s decision to spend R761 000 of ratepayer funds on the funeral service of the late ANC benefactor and businessman, Don Mkhwanazi?
The explanation given by the city’s communications department has frankly raised more questions than answers.