billing crisis


Power cut-offs loom for Joburg residents

Tuesday, June 14, 2011 No Comments by Zelda

Johannesburg residents face a new threat of electricity cut-offs, for nonpayment of outstanding bills.

This means a moratorium on cut-offs imposed by the city council in March — to allow ratepayers to sort out inaccurate bills issued in the recent billing crisis — has been lifted.

Revenue spokesman Stan Maphologela said yesterday the city was “stepping up its credit control in order to collect outstanding debt”.

“The campaign began on May 1, with the sending of pre-termination notices to all defaulters, mainly companies, corporates, and state departments,” Maphologela said. “The second phase will be undertaken with domestic customers.

“The pre-termination notices were sent since last week. We will continue to cover all defaulters, and the intensity of the campaign will be felt towards the end of next week and month-end,” he said.

“Customers who have applied and qualified for discounts as well as customers who have logged queries, received reference numbers and ensured that the account is flagged, will be excluded from the credit control campaign.”

He said that to date 65000 billing queries had been received, 52000 of which were resolved.

Lee Cahill of the civil rights organisation, Johannesburg Advocacy Group, said the city’s claims of its account resolution rate could not be accurate. “On January 26 the former mayor, Amos Masondo, said there were 80000 inaccurate bills.

“The city later claimed there were ‘only’ 65000 incorrect bills. If we accept all of these figures are accurate, this equates to a resolution rate of about 1000 complaints every working day from January 26 to April 14. By way of comparison, the new National Consumer Commission announced last week it had managed to resolve 60 complaints since it opened on April 1. This is an average of 1.3 disputes a day. ”

Credit to: Business Day

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Half of Joburg billing queries resolved

Friday, April 15, 2011 1 Comment by Zelda

Half the queries lodged with the city of Johannesburg since it acknowledged billing problems earlier this year have been resolved.

“…I am glad to say of the 60 000 queries lodged since the problem started, 35, 535 have been resolved, and the city will work around the clock to resolve all outstanding queries,” Gauteng local government and housing MEC Humphrey Mmemezi was quoted as saying in a statement on Thursday, issued by his department after a press briefing with public protector Thuli Madonsela earlier in the day.

The city said it needed a minimum of six months to resolve all outstanding issues. Complaints by residents have included bills for inflated amounts and services being cut off without notice.

Mmemezi applauded Madonsela for her interest in ensuring the problem in Johannesburg was resolved quickly.

“About 263 queries were received through the office of Adv Thuli Madonsela, and within three days, 55 of those were resolved.”

Madonsela was quoted as saying her office was “particularly interested” in ensuring complaints were listened to and resolved as speedily as possible.

Head of revenue at the city, Gerald Dumas was quoted as saying: “Our ongoing quest is to change the customer experience and to provide them with individualised responses.

“We are at the service of the residents of the city and all the elements of improvements that we make must be solely for the benefit of them.”

Credit to: Times Live and Sapa

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Billing crisis ‘blown out of proportion’

Sunday, March 6, 2011 5 Comments by Zelda

The billing crisis in Gauteng had been “blown out of proportion”, according to the head of the portfolio committee on local government and housing.

Errol Magerman, the chairperson of the provincial local government committee, had visited the City of Johannesburg’s council and said that they had been “frank and honest about some problems”, the Star newspaper reported on Saturday.

“It was the implementation of the new system that obviously brought about these problems,” he said.

Magerman said that his committee would monitor the situation to avoid a repetition and that a report on the billing and revenue problems facing the affected municipalities would be submitted.

The Gauteng portfolio committee for local government and housing visited the Emfuleni municipality and the City of Johannesburg to gather information on their billing systems and revenue collection.

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 also attributed the problems to the implementation of an IT project known as Project 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.

Credit to: News 24 and Sapa

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Billing: ’50% resolved’

Wednesday, March 2, 2011 2 Comments by Zelda

The City of Johannesburg has resolved half of the billing queries received from residents in the inner city, it said on Tuesday.

“Executive mayor Amos Masondo and his customer revenue team [CRM] [were thanked] for helping to resolve half of the 500 outstanding queries residents had with their city accounts,” city spokesperson Gaynor Mashamaite-Noyce said in a statement.

“At a meeting held with the Johannesburg Inner City Business Coalition [JCIBC] in early December it was agreed that all outstanding queries received up to December 10 would be prioritised and tackled,” she said.

CRM spokesperson Stanley Maphologela said it dealt with all queries sent from the JCIBC for distribution and resolution.

‘This process worked well’

Fifteen main issues were identified and categorised under revenue, rates and planning matters.

One issue concerned the incorrect cut-off of power and water.

“A process was set in place to expedite reconnections where engagement on queries had started. This process worked well and the number of emergency interventions has been reduced to nearly zero,” Maphologela said.

Another issue that had not been addressed sufficiently was the conversion of commercial rates to residential rates where buildings had been converted.

“Other key billing issues were the exorbitant bills some people had received and some bills that made little sense,” Mashamaite-Noyce said.

Maphologela said: “We have already made a lot of headway in addressing those top issues and we expect this process to be finished by the end of March.”

Credit to: Mail & Guardian and Sapa

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City promise to stop unfair disconnections

Tuesday, February 22, 2011 4 Comments by Zelda

The City of Johannesburg said on Monday that it would suspend disconnections if residents could prove that they had been over-billed.

“If the city finds or is presented with evidence to suggest that specific accounts are inaccurate or problematic, on a case-by-case basis it will suspend cut-offs until the issue is resolved,” said spokesman Stanley Maphologela.

Protesters, led by DA councillor David Dewes, handed over a memorandum of demands to a representative of the city’s finance department on Friday.

The small group of residents danced and sang outside the city’s customer service centre in Braamfontein.

They were protesting about over-billing, sometimes by hundreds of thousands of rands, followed by disconnection if the bills were not paid.

Maphologela said the city’s receipt of the memorandum proved its commitment “to listen to the views of our residents and to respond to issues they raise”.

“We will also keep residents updated on the steps taken to correct problems.”

Lombardy East resident Evert Kleynhans said he received a bill for R35 000 last year. When he didn’t pay it the municipality cut off his electricity.

“Because the electricity was cut-off, my automated gate stopped working. I was hijacked the one night while getting out of my car to open the gate manually.”

Roodepoort resident Mike Naidoo said he received a bill that began at R15 000 late in 2009 and eventually accumulated to R197 000 this month.

“I have complained so much to the city that I now have 17 reference numbers, where do I go from here?” he asked.

Martini Marica, a Kensington resident, said she received a bill for R28 000 in September last year.

“I went to my husband and I said ‘Is this a joke?’. I carried on paying every month what we usually paid which was about R800 but then in January I got a bill for R48 000″.

Maphologela said the city had implemented a “proactive process of calling customers in an attempt to resolve their queries”.

The city also promised that it would give feedback “on how the matter is being investigated and how it will be resolved” to any residents who lodged complaints.

It remained “open and willing to talk to all our citizens on billing and other relevant city matters”.

This said, the city reminded residents that collecting revenue was a critical task in maintaining a functional city.

“Accounts that are unpaid or in arrears put an unfair strain on the city and its loyal paying residents,” said Maphologela.

Credit to: Business LIVE

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Protest ‘disappointing’

Behind-the-scenes billing battle intensifies

City will continue cutting power

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Protest ‘disappointing’

Friday, February 18, 2011 2 Comments by Zelda

A march to protest the ongoing billing crisis affecting City of Johannesburg residents has been labelled as “disappointing” by councillor David Dewes from the Democratic Alliance. Dewes organised the protest.

The protest action, which took place outside Thuso House in Braamfontein this morning, was attended by a few hundred people. Dewes said he was really disappointed at the limited turnout.

Dewes said: “I think civil society sucks.” He pointed out that there were thousands of people living in the city who have issues with their bills, but the amount of people who attended the march, which became violent at one stage, was disappointing.

The city is dealing with at least 60 000 enquiries from residents relating to bills that are over-inflated or do not reflect payments, among other issues. Residents have been cut off for not paying outrageous invoices.

However, despite the thousands of people affected by the crisis, only about 250 people turned out, said Dewes. “Civil society must get out there and say enough is enough… We must take to the streets in our myriads. They must wake up and smell the roses.”

The Joburg Advocacy Group, which supported the action, is also disappointed that the protest was not much bigger. Founding member Lee Cahill said about 500 people attended the march in total, but people kept coming and going.

The city is making the right noises about fixing the issue, but this is too little, too late, argued Cahill. “People were arriving with their bills… It’s just one horrendous story after another, and it’s the same story time and again.”

Meanwhile a group of residents has laid criminal charges against City of Johannesburg mayor Amos Masondo amid the billing crisis that has left many without electricity.

The Blairgowrie Community Association has also laid charges against the City’s member of the mayoral committee on finance, Parks Tau.

Masondo and Tau face charges of contravening the Municipal Systems Act, relating to the over-billing of many Johannesburg residents for rates and utilities followed by disconnections if the bills are not paid.

The association’s spokesman Linus Muller, who laid the charges, said that a number of residents from the northern Johannesburg suburb complained about unfair disconnections.

He said most of those cut off had already lodged complaints with the municipality.

According to Muller, it was unlawful to disconnect a consumer if he or she had lodged a dispute with the municipality.

Lieutenant-Colonel Tshisakhawe Ndou confirmed to Independent Online that a case had been opened.

The city’s communications director, Gabu Tugwana, said he needed to check with the legal department before commenting.

Credit to: ITWeb, Independent Online and Sapa

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Behind-the-scenes billing battle intensifies

Friday, February 11, 2011 1 Comment by Zelda

While Johannesburg faces a water and electricity billing crisis, behind the scenes the metropolitan council has had to deal with an internal scuffle between companies contracted to implement billing software, an internal report penned last year reveals.

The report by an ANC-led task team for the city also finds that the council made a bad decision in appointing Dimension Data, which is currently implementing the SAP software created to solve billing glitches. The report says that Dimension Data should be replaced by its predecessor, software giant IBM.

“The decision to appoint DD is unsound and illogical and has exposed the [city] to extremely high levels of risk,” reads the report. “It was based on a wrong risk assessment. The highest risk lies with the departure of IBM because it is the original equipment manufacturer and applications vendor.”

It goes on to recommend that the council rescind the decision to appoint Dimension Data “as the prime contractor to deliver the remainder of contract A117 and should appoint IBM as the prime contractor”.

The report observes that both Dimension Data and IBM were brought in as strategic partners of the first company contracted to implement the software programme, Masana Technologies, but that “it is not clear whether the contract was put out to tender”. But Alpheus Mangale, Dimension Data spokesperson, says that Dimension Data was selected “under tender”.

But matters between the two subcontractors turned sour. “IBM has taken a position that it will not work with Dimension Data,” reads the report. “The city was faced with choosing between the two … IBM advised the city that a mutually acceptable arrangement could not be reached between IBM and DD. DD cited unacceptable terms proposed by IBM.”

Unfair process

Furthermore, IBM was unhappy with the process used by the council to appoint Dimension Data, believing that it was not given an equal opportunity to present its proposals.

The report says that the council received a R158m loan from IBM, but gives no further details. The task team, comprising three prominent ANC members, also explains the city’s earlier problems with Project Phakama, when it appointed Masana Technologies as the main contractor to implement software created first by Venus and then German multinational SAP.

“We took a decision to ‘marry’ Accenture [management company] and Masana in an attempt to get them to work together. The marriage did not work and Accenture pulled out … there were lots of delays at huge costs while the transition with the withdrawal of Accenture was being managed,” the report says.

“Masana did not have adequate capacity to manage the complex obligations … [and] underestimated the enormity of the task. It led to it being unable to meet its obligations.”

Last week the Mail & Guardian reported that three of the directors of Masana had worked for the city, City Power or the Gauteng government within a year of it being awarded the contract.

The city would not comment.

Credit to: Mail and Guardian

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City will continue cutting power

Friday, February 4, 2011 No Comments by Zelda

The City of Johannesburg will continue cutting off services to those who do not pay their electricity bills, Mayor Amos Masondo said on Thursday.

“We don’t enjoy cutting off [electricity to] people, but the municipality has a legal responsibility and obligation to collect all the money due to the municipality,” he said in Parktown.

He said the City would not “wrongfully” cut power.

The widespread billing problems in the City of Johannesburg, the country’s economic hub, have angered many residents.

Masondo said “significant progress” had been made in dealing with the situation. He earlier drew widespread criticism for saying that the problem did not constitute a “crisis”.

He could not provide a timeline of when the billing issues would be resolved.

“In one year’s time, in two years’ time, many of the problems… will be problems of the past,” he said.

Masondo was speaking at a media briefing on the sidelines of a meeting called by the ANC in Gauteng with all mayors and managers in ANC-led municipalities.

The ANC expressed “grave concern” over the billing problems.

“The billing problems in Johannesburg had reached crisis point. We have reached a different level now,” said ANC Gauteng secretary David Makhura.

Measures were put in place to address the problems.

Masondo said “more and more” municipal staff now had a better understanding of how the system worked.

The response of mayors to the billing hassles and to the recent floods would influence their nomination as ANC candidates in the upcoming local elections, said Makhura.

“That is an important issue to look at when we will be making decisions on candidates for mayors,” he said.

“We are being sensitive to the fact that people are being affected… We are saying to mayors, don’t blame residents… Help them, talk to those affected,” he said.

“That’s a very important consideration.”

Makhura told mayors that every complaint their municipalities received was “one too many”.

“As the ANC, we will never be satisfied… We want a completely reliable billing system. We will always be on the side of those affected,” he said.

He said the ANC did not believe the problem was with the system.

“We know the problems are not with the system… metros have invested in the modernisation of the system.

“In Johannesburg there was a great deal of neglect by those on the frontline tasked with providing leadership to municipal officials,” he said.

He said the ANC was satisfied with Masondo, as he had done a lot to improve under-developed areas such as Soweto.

The ANC runs 13 of the 15 municipalities in Gauteng.

The ANC called the meeting with mayors and municipal managers to discuss the billing problems, flood damage and the managing of finances.

Credit to: Sapa and News 24

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Billing: ANC to meet with Gauteng mayors

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Billing: ANC to meet with Gauteng mayors

Wednesday, February 2, 2011 No Comments by Zelda

The ANC in Gauteng will meet the province’s seven mayors on Thursday to discuss the widely-publicised billing crisis and service delivery complaints, a spokesperson confirmed on Wednesday.

“They will meet on Thursday,” ANC Gauteng spokesperson Dumisa Ntuli said.

The meeting, ahead of the first round of voter registration for the forthcoming local government elections, will take place in Johannesburg.

Last week Johannesburg Mayor Amos Masondo said there was “no crisis” in billing for rates and utilities in the country’s economic hub.

However, many of the city’s customers disagree, after receiving exorbitant bills that do not reflect true consumption, and unfair disconnections.

Ntuli said the ANC agreed there was no crisis because they have a 95% “pay rate”, with only around five percent not paying.

But they agree that there are “a few glitches in the system” where officials are not doing their job.

“For example, the system will tell you if a person has been wrongly billed and it must be investigated, but the officials continue to bill the people. So, it’s a man-made problem, not a system problem and the leadership will deal with that.”

Action would be taken against offending officials.

“A crisis is something of an intensive propensity, of great proportionality like a tsunami that you cannot resolve. But this one can be resolved,” he said.

Credit to: Sapa and News 24

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Billing crisis may lead to qualified audit

Tuesday, February 1, 2011 No Comments by Zelda

Johannesburg’s billing chaos could result in the city receiving a qualified audit this year.

It emerged at a city council meeting last week that auditor-general Terence Nombembe had rejected City Power and Joburg Water’s financial statements, questioning their revenue figures because of billing problems.

The city has a budget of R28.3bn, or R5.3bn more than Cape Town, SA’s next wealthiest city. A qualified audit would affect the city’s credit rating.

Johannesburg’s financial statements for the financial year to June 20, 2010 were submitted to the auditor-general by September 30 and the audit was due for completion by December.

But Nombembe had notified Johannesburg mayor Amos Masondo that he needed further assurances on revenue figures,
A report from Masondo’s office, released yesterday, read: “The reason for the delay (in the audit) has been the audit of the city’s revenue.

“During the 2009-10 financial year, the city migrated from the Venus system previously used for billing and revenue management, to the new revenue and customer relations management system on SAP Phakama.

While management has confidence in the reliability of the data submitted for auditing purposes, the auditor-general seeks assurance on the completeness of the revenue and therefore further auditing procedures are to be undertaken.”

Nombembe’s office did not respond to queries from Business Day yesterday.

Democratic Alliance (DA) councillor John Mendelsohn, who sits on the city’s finance committee, said that a qualified audit would be disastrous for the city.

“After just two years of unqualified (clean) audits, a qualified audit from the auditor- general would impact negatively. The city is heavily borrowed, with long-term borrowing of R15bn, and this would affect its credit rating and push up repayments on the loans.”

During debate on the finalisation of the audit last week, DA councillor Patrick Atkinson said Masondo and Parks Tau, the finance member of the mayoral committee, were living in a parallel universe in which they did not deal with the reality of the billing crisis.

“Mr Masondo and Mr Tau, why don’t you try and phone the call centre or stand for days trying to sort out a bill that is clearly wrong?” he asked. He cited the case of a Craighall Park pensioner whose water had been cut off because she would not pay an erroneous bill of R106 000. He said Tau was “heartless”.

Mayoral committee member Christine Walters responded that Tau had “impeccable struggle DNA” and was a caring husband and father. She said the council had inherited a system that was a legacy of apartheid.

Project Phakama was installed in August last year.

Mendelsohn proposed that Masondo and Tau resign — after apologising to all affected by the billing crisis.

In his reply Masondo said the way that Atkinson had “dared” to speak did not reflect the quality of what the council had so far achieved with Phakama.

“When you think that 1million accounts have been migrated to the new system and that in Johannesburg 10 000 properties change hands each month, it is important to realise that very few organisations can handle services of this complexity.”

Credit to: Business Day

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