Metro bills out of sync again
We are under siege from people squatting in buildings which were abandoned by Durban Deep Mines after the closure of the mines several years ago.
The squatters have illegally connected themselves to a City Power electricity distribution box at the corner of Clubhouse Drive and Caddie Street in Goudrand extension 3.
This causes damage to electrical appliances in residents’ houses. The matter was reported to the police and City Power, but authorities are violently chased away by the squatters.
Residents are told by the squatters that if they remove the illegal power connections they will be killed.
We have noted the complaint of illegal connections by the customers of Goudrand ext 3. City Power will soon begin with investigations of the area. If need be, a planning process for an operation to remove illegal connections, will be implemented. As it is now well-known, City Power does not act alone in the operations of removing illegal connections.
It does so in partnership with other entities like Joburg Metro Police Department and SA Police Service. The planning process involves consulting these entities and, depending on their availability, and availability of their resources, City Power will then be able to execute a removal operation.
We are pensioners and have been living in the same house for 50 years, paying our water and electricity accounts at the right time every month.
Two or three months ago we received an SMS thanking us for our prompt payments. But this month, Mr Mashaba’s political demons are catching up with him, sabotaging the accounting system and the DA.
We received a water and electricity account showing the Joburg metro owes us R83 242, which is wrong. Then we received our rates and services account on which we owe R86 091, which is also completely wrong. No response was received to our e-mails sent.
We are not in arrears, or in credit, with either of the accounts. The Joburg metro accounting system is out of sync again. But they don’t admit it. The
RESIDENTS OF GOUDRAND EXTENSION 3, ROODEPOORT (WHO WOULD NOT BE NAMED FOR FEAR OF VICTIMISATION) WRITE:
CITY POWER REPLIES:
M J REYNEKE OF GLENVISTA WRITES:
ratepayers of this lovely city who are paying for people in other areas who refuse to pay, are chased from pillar to post, with no solution to the problems.
Speaking to one of their agents on the phone after being kept on hold for an hour, we were told to pay the R86 091 immediately.
They said they would refund us if the account was wrong. We were also informed that they do not pay out any credits we may have – the R83 242 – they owe us and it will go off monthly as our meters are read.
We have paid what we thought we owed this month, but we want to bring this problem to the attention of Metrowatch. It seems this is a political game to discredit the DA council.
There has been an error which will be rectified – the debits will be used to offset the credit.
THE CITY REPLIES: