Pretoria - Homeowners affiliated to the Lotus Gardens, Atteridgeville and Saulsville Civic Association have called on the City of Tshwane to put an end to the estimated bills system and allow residents to pay a flat rate as the cost of electricity is unaffordable currently.
While the City is so often engaged in negotiations about its own debt to Eskom, usually into the hundreds of millions and recently over a billion, some residents are adding more pressure by asking the City to stop exorbitant billing.
The association has been engaging the City for some time, trying to attain an agreement for homeowners to pay flat rates. It also wants the municipality to cancel all estimated bills.
The chairperson of the association, Tshepo Mahlangu, said they did not want to continue paying estimated bills for water and electricity. While negotiations continued, he encouraged community members getting social grants to pay R300, and those who are employed to pay R500 from today.
He said a lot of homeowners in the area were still waiting for approval to be placed on the indigent list.
“No community member must agree to illegal arrangements on estimated bills. Legally, they cannot bill us with estimates for more than three months, but the City has done so for many years.
“The City must scrap the bills because they are estimated. The City must cancel the debt collectors’ contracts immediately. Those collections agents have been harassing our people.
“How do you say you are still negotiating with us and processing applications for people to be placed on the indigent list, but at the same time those very same people are being called and told to make payment arrangements?”
Mahlangu said the organisation was also calling on the City to stop deducting 60% for prepaid meters. Some homeowners were moved to prepaid, and their other amounts were going towards old debt to the City.
“We must start on a clean slate. Nothing for us without us. We are the municipality for the people by the people.
“We will not be paying for estimated bills. Instead we will contribute to the revenue collection in a sustainable and affordable manner.
“Most people are still on the waiting list for their indigent programme registrations. Most people have completed the affordability assessment forms.
“Amnesty and revenue collection campaigns are unjustified and unnecessary. The City must just do the right thing. Enough is enough.
“We want to buy directly from Eskom. We no longer need prepaid metering and this middle man (City of Tshwane),” said Mahlangu.
According to the MMC for Finance, Peter Sutton, the City cannot afford to allow people using its services to pay a flat rate, and there is no such policy at the moment.
He said the City was also under pressure financially and needed to collect revenue by making its clients pay for what they used.
Sutton said he had met with residents on numerous occasions to discuss these issues and one of the things he noticed was that some people just did not want to pay for what they had used, even after the City had tried to assist them.
Pretoria News