Committee to get info on billing systems

2011-03-04 17:30

Johannesburg - The Gauteng portfolio committee for local government and housing will visit the Emfuleni municipality and the City of Johannesburg to gather information on their billing systems, the local government department said on Friday.

"The visit will be today [Friday], for one day, to look at their revenue collection in their cities and the ways of enhancing it," said the MEC's spokesperson Motsamai Motlhaolwa.

This follows a billing crisis in the province in which residents have been, among other things, sent bills for inflated amounts and had their services cut off without notice.

City of Johannesburg Mayor Amos Masondo attributed the problems to the implementation of an IT project known as Programme Phakama, which was designed to improve the city's billing system.

On Friday, the Democratic Alliance said the Gauteng government had failed in its service delivery to yet another municipality in the province.

"The [Nokeng tsa Taemane] municipality is unable to send out municipal bills and residents are forced to collect their latest accounts from the municipality," DA roads and transport spokesperson Fred Nel said in a statement.

"If this is not enough, customers are charged with an amount of R35 when collecting accounts... customers who fail to collect their accounts are having their electricity cut off," he said.

Nel called on Gauteng Local Government and Housing MEC Humphrey Mmemezi to intervene by visiting the municipality and informing residents how the problem would be solved.

- SAPA