DURBAN - ETHEKWINI mayor Mxolisi Kaunda on Tuesday announced that a smart water and electricity meter reading system would be launched next month.
Kaunda made the announcement during an eThekwini Municipality Executive Committee virtual meeting on Tuesday, where the city reported that it continued to lose revenue as the water meter reading system was not working efficiently.
This was detailed in the municipality’s Budget Statement Report for August. Deputy city manager Sibusiso Makhanya said there was a tender process that would assist, correct and solve the water meter reading problem. He added that there were duplicate meter readings that were also being attended to. On the issue of electricity losses, he said that the electricity deficit was 15%.
Kaunda said the smart water and electricity meter reading system was the solution to the problem.
“In October, smart meter readings will be launched and there will also be roadshows to ask people who have experienced high meter readings to engage the City and see how best to assist them,” said Kaunda.
The municipality’s chief financial officer, Sandile Mnguni, said the city had established a task team to investigate the issue of the meter readings, and he assured Exco that the matter was being attended to.
Exco councillor and DA caucus chief whip Thabani Mthethwa had raised a concern about the matter. He said the municipality’s July 2021 budget statement reflected that the city was owed R16.8 billion.
“The debtors form a laundry list comprising parastatals, government departments, businesses, the Ingonyama Trust and bus operator Tansnat. R5.9bn is categorised as debt, which includes ‘collection challenges’.”
He said the municipality was currently experiencing chronic revenue challenges, with service delivery almost non-existent.
“It is therefore of grave concern to the DA that during the month of August the municipality suffered water loses of more than 54%. This means that the municipality is losing more water than it sells, resulting in revenue losses amounting to hundreds of millions in much-needed revenue. In the same month, the report states that more than 190 576 water meters were not read. Of those unread meters, 47 437 have remained unread for more than a year.”
Mthethwa said that in the same month 54 321 electricity meters were not read, and of those 505 had remained unread for more than a year.
“For more than three years now eThekwini residents have suffered through irregular billing. As a result, residents have had to pay inflated bills due to the failure of the billing system and lack of regular meter readings.”
DA caucus leader Nicole Graham said she acknowledged the challenges people faced due to Covid-19, but that it was imperative for the city to ensure that meter readings were done correctly and were paid for.
Kaunda commented that smart meter reading was a solution to the challenge, and that there were interventions to address the problems.
The Revenue Management System, which became operational in 2016, has left many ratepayers fuming after being slapped with inflated utility bills.
Reacting to Kaunda’s announcement, Anthony Pierce, from the New Dawn Park Residents’ Association, said that nothing pertaining to infrastructure and the problems associated with service delivery was rocket science.
“Municipal issues that are related to service delivery require personnel who have the requisite skills, and not party deployees. The issue of electricity and water has come full circle. South Africa is prone to fixing that which is not broken. The system of old worked, and then the powers that be decided otherwise,” Piece said.
“The residents are at the point where they believe that the municipality does not have the capacity to deal with smart water and electricity readings. Errors like the current exorbitant electricity and water charges are likely to occur.”
Pierce said that unless workers were skilled in what was required of them, the challenges would remain.
“The municipality is not making money because the revenue collected lines the pockets of the fat cats. Regardless of the method of collection, money is still likely to fall into a big, deep hole.”
Newlands community activist Raymond Methraj Sakloo said that water reading was supposed to be conducted on a month-to-month basis, but “unfortunately, the municipality-appointed contractors or the municipal officials do not read the meters timeously, and ratepayers are charged exorbitant costs, and subsequently fall into more debt”.
“There is a further problem due to municipal officials failing in procurement of water meters because water meters have been out of stock for almost two years, and free-flow meters have been installed in ratepayers’ homes and ratepayers are being charged astronomical costs.”
Daily News