Blatant forgery and uttering by municipality billing department

I have had a municipal account with Ethekwini Municipality for 32 tears and have lived at my present address for the last ten. For much of that time I had regular accounts sent to me and always paid them on time and in full.

From late 2016 billing became erratic and water meter readings almost non existent. I however regularly paid in an estimated amount. Between 2016 and mid 2019 I built up a credit balance of a little over R9000 in my utilities account. Unusual, but true.

Some time ago, for some reason my individual unit's water meter was changed to an updated model with CIS serial number while my neighbours' meters in our residential complex still have the old original AS serial numbers. This newer meter was in place from about 2017 and indeed the meter was read once in March 2017, when it was apparently reset. I assume this was when the newer model meter was also installed for whatever reason. In the last week of July 2019 I had cause to look at the meter, as I was waiting for a lift one morning and was sitting on the low wall surrounding the meters while I waited. I observed the meter was smeared with grey paint as our complex was painted grey in May and June 2019. In short, I am 100% positive the new meter with. the CIS serial number was already in place long before August 2019.

In September 2019 I received an account for water usage in excess of R7000. According to this account, the old meter with the original AS serial number was read on 22 July 2019! This is impossible as the new meter was definitely already there and so the 22 July reading should have been of the 'new' meter with the CIS serial number. The meter was then allegedly reset, and when it was read again on 29 August I had in about 5 weeks allegedly used a gobsmacking103 kilolitres! This occasioned the R7000 account at punitive tariff rates.

There was no water leak on my property, as by September when I received the bill I was back to using about 200 litres a day, and on a day when my domestic worker wasn't there the meter did not move at all in the 9 hours between my departure for work and my return. So a leak definitely cannot account for this phenomenal water usage, and I do not recall even accidentally leaving a tap running for a few hours at any time between 22 July and 29 August. My water usage should have been typical during that period, i.e about 200 litres per day.

What tells me that this is ***** is the fact that the meter reader on 22 July 2019 was so clever and clairvoyant that he or she saw the old AS serial number of a meter which was no longer even there, nor had been for several years. If the meter really had been read on 22 July 2019 the meter reader should surely have seen the newer meter with the CIS serial number. There can be no justification for my account showing the AS meter number in July 2019 if the meter was really read.

What I believe is that the meter was last read in March 2017, which was almost certainly when the CIS serial number meter was installed. The 103 kilolitres is usage between March 2017 and August 2019, a period of almost 2 and a half years,which is perfectly reasonable and which was paid regularly, even when I received no accounts because of Ethekwini Municipality's utter uselessness and incompetence in recent years. in mid 2019 some sticky-fingered ******** in the billing department saw a credit balance in my account and decided to work a little scheme to embezzle a couple of thousand, by creating a falsified invoice, showing a meter reading on 22 July 2019 which was not actually done, as is evidenced by citing the incorrect meter number.

I have written complaints and had a response 'helpfully' asking me if I hadn't had a leak? Obviously it is assumed I am so dim-witted that possibility never crossed my tiny little mind. Well no, there was no leak, not unless it miraculously fixed itself, and that still doesn't explain the wrong meter number on the account. My theory, on the other hand, that this is a case of an invoice with falsified details, does explain the wrong meter number. It is in fact the only likely explanation.

Apart from the condescending query about a possible leak my complaint has received no attention. I have been DE*****ED of over R7000 and nothing is being done about it.

The Ethekwini Municipality is useless and ******* to the core. This is a disgusting way to treat a long standing customer with an outstanding record of payment. I want the world to know about how badly customers are treated by this bunch of racketeering career ********* which work in the billing department.