Billing problems to be settled - Masondo

2011-03-09 14:34

Johannesburg - Residents affected by recent billing problems will be provided with a "favourable settlement arrangement", the city's mayor Amos Masondo said in his state of the city address on Wednesday.

"We have listened and we have heard the customers," he said.

Masondo said in a bid to resolve the issue a resolution was taken at a mayoral committee meeting on March 3 that as from March 2011 billing queries between 90 days and 12 months would receive a 25% discount.

This would be while queries that were 12 months and older were given a 50% discount.

Masondo said this arrangement was, however, subject to criteria which included that a billing query must be logged and resolved before a write-off could occur "as there is no intention to create any credit balances".

The criteria further includes conditions that the consumer must pay in full or make an arrangement to pay all amounts outstanding over 90 days by 30 June 2011, in order to qualify for the write-off.

The consumer must have provided an identity number, verifiable physical address, postal address, e-mail address and cellphone or landline number.

Apology

"Once again, I would like to take this opportunity to apologise for the inconvenience caused to the Johannesburg residents and citizens by our new billing system.

"We commit to work diligently and to do everything possible to correct the situation and resolve every single outstanding query," Masondo said.

The resolution comes after some residents approached the media after they received inflated monthly bills and others had their services cut off despite having their accounts up to date.

In its initial bid to resolve the billing matter by addressing a media conference, Masondo angered the affected residents and some opposition parties when he said the billing problem did not amount to a "crisis".

- SAPA