JOHANNESBURG - The City of Johannesburg has admitted a billing blunder that has seen thousands of households invoiced despite not having had water amid the ongoing outages.
Joburg Mayor Dada Morero said the City will be effecting reversals and adjustments for the affected account holders.
He said the inaccuracies happen when the City generates a bill on estimates for consumption services, which is usually for three months before an actual bill reading.
This after many residents in the City who have been without water for days complained that they were still receiving high bills despite dry taps.
Morero said authorities were aware of the problem, adding that the municipality received about 16,000 queries for inaccurate bills on a month-to-month basis.
He said the problem was exacerbated by meter readers not capturing the correct bill into the system.
“In some instances, it’s as a result of estimations and our lack of sufficient people to deal with meter readings on the ground,” Morero said during a briefing on the Joburg water crisis.
READ: Dry taps in Joburg, Tshwane blamed on high consumption
The City currently bills about 1,2 million accounts a month.
“There are instances where we have billed people who have not had water for the longest period. We will effect reversals and the adjustments for those accounts.”
He urged households that have been billed unfairly to come forward and have their bills reviewed.
“You should not be billed for what you have not consumed; it's a matter of principle. It could be that they are currently on estimates, so they must just submit their bills so these reversals can take place. We will correct that,” said Morero.