City of Tshwane Billing Dispute

The City of Tshwane sent me an SMS message on the 4th of February 2021 advising that my current water and electricity bill is R10 098.00. I had no previous arrears. The amount brought forward was zero. The R10 0098 was just one month’s bill. My normal bill is approximately R3 000.

I went to their offices the next day to understand how a normal residential bill can amount to R10 098. I was told by the customer care consultant that the City of Tshwane has not been receiving the monthly readings. The consultant told me that during lockdown, the City of Tshwane was not sending anybody to take meter readings. They were using estimates for the past 12 months. This was strange as I was actually sending the readings to the municipality on a monthly basis to their online email address, meterreadings@cityoftshwane which was given to me by their office and was also advertised no Radio 702. After the email, I would receive an acknowledgement from them.

The customer consultant that helped me, did not even request proof of those emails. I then requested to make payment arrangement over at least 24 months. They refused and I was told that to qualify for a 24-month payment arrangement, I must pay 50% of the current bill, which is R5 049. I did not have that much money and said I can only pay R3 000 as per my usual monthly bill. I was then told that because I did not pay the 50% deposit, I only qualify to repay the outstanding debt over 12 months. I did not accept this and was told to come back when I have the money. I went again on the 20th of February 2021, the consultant that had helped me previously was not at work and no one wanted to help. The new consultant promised that he would refer my request to the senior manager to consider my request as this was not my fault.

I was told to come back on the following Tuesday when the consultant that helped me would be at work. I went back to their offices as advised, but was taken to this “other guy”. I was not even introduced, not sure if that guy was a senior or not. This guy refused to assist me just as the others had; he said because I did not pay 50% of the bill, I didn’t qualify for 24 months payment arrangement. I refused to accepts the 12 months and he said the best he can do is 18 months.

I had no choice because he said it was a “take it or leave it” deal, and If I didn’t accept it, they would switch off my lights.

This doesn’t solve my problem though; I am still sitting with a large sum of money in arrears and this will just keep pilling as the next months are added. This is very upsetting since I consistently sent my meter readings to the municipality and kept my account up to date, but they chose to ignore my emails and bill me on an estimation.