Beyond useless and utterly ***********

My water meter stopped working almost two years ago. I only discovered the fact about 8 months later. Since then I have made at least 14 attempts to get the meter repaired or replaced. Nothing happens.

I first complained in person at a community open day held by eThekwini Municipality, and no doubt paid for by rate payer's money. The person who heard my complaint at the open day appeared out of his depth but told me to go home and run a tap for a few minutes and see if the meter was still off! I felt I wasn't taken seriously but I did as asked and for good measure did another reading the next day and sent that to him via email too. He never even acknowledged receipt of my emails, despite a further attempt to contact him a few months later.

Realising he was a dead loss I went to a Sizakala Centre to report the issue but was told they don't deal with that it is the responsibility of Water and Sanitation Services. I Googled them to get their location and their website actually discouraged members of the public from coming in to see them, saying it is the "preferred option" for people to do their complaints online. Clearly they can't be bothered to deal with the public. I attempted to lay a complaint via email to the *** email address on the website and the person who rep**** clearly hadn't even bothered to read what I had written and despite the fact I wanted to report a broken water meter I was simply told that I couldn't send my meter readings to that email address any longer and had to use the services portal, a response which didn't address my complaint at all. So much for using the services portal instead of coming in to see them in person!

I tried complaining on their WhatsApp platform but that is a chatbot and the listed options that I was offered didn't include non-functioning water meter. I had to settle for burst meter and was then given a ***. That was in November 2025 and it is now September 2026 and nothing has been done. A second attempt some months later saw me finally dealing with a human agent who noted my complaint and gave me a ***. 5 months later nothing has been done.

I even contacted our ward councillor via email and WhatsApp several times but despite reassurances that he has passed the information on to the relevant manager I am still waiting for any action.

Using the UP-WARD platform recommended on our community area group chat has also failed to produce results as three months later I am still waiting.

Nobody does ANYTHING to try to resolve the problem and after 14 separate attempts to get the issue resolved I am still sitting with a non functioning water meter. In the meanwhile I am using water every day and live in dread of the day eThekwini will suddenly realise there is something odd about the fact an occupied residential property uses no water and I will then be hit with a huge bill of estimated costs, very likely inflated as little tweaks like that to generate funds to be embezzled are the order of the day in Durban.

I am a pensioner and will be crippled financially if that happens. I have been very proactive in trying to resolve the issue but absolutely NOBODY is prepared to help me and I will be the one sitting in a nightmarish situation with financial hardship at the end of the day when that massive water bill arrives.

This is a disgusting way to treat a ratepayer whose rates sent up this year while service delivery has dwindled to non-existent. eThekwini Water and Sanitation Services are an absolute disgrace, why are we paying their salaries with our rates money?