Durban ratepayers are gearing up for another legal battle against the eThekwini Municipality after the City demanded that residents cough up thousands of rand accrued as a result of a suspected water billing error.
At the heart of the suspected error is that houses valued at more than R250 000 had received free basic water when they were not supposed to. This has apparently been going on since 2020 and the municipality has now demanded they pay back the money.
The Mercury has seen at least one municipal bill outlining the issue. One homeowner with a house valued at R1.9 million had been told he owed the municipality R4 856 as a result and must pay R482 towards the debt.
The eThekwini Ratepayers Protest Movement (ERPM) said in a statement that this was a municipal billing error and vowed that it would not take the matter lying down.
The Westville Ratepayers Association, an affiliate of the ERPM, recently took the municipality to court after it passed tariffs that the association said were unreasonable and that had been approved without proper consultation.
The association lodged a dispute and withheld rates and the City disconnected services to some residents in retaliation, forcing the association to go to court to demand that services be restored. However, the court found in the City’s favour.
“The ERPM notes with serious concerns that eThekwini Municipality has raised irregular water charges on many properties. On the bill it reflects as a backdated charge from 2020 regarding the reversal of free basic water supplied by the City during that period. An added line reflects that all properties that exceed R250 000 need to repay the free basic water from 2020 to current as it seems the City made a billing error,” said the organisation in a statement.
It continued: “As ERPM we find this completely irrational and irregular; it once again demonstrates the recklessness, incompetence and the absolute disregard for residents.
“We believe this is economic oppression committed against the residents of eThekwini by the City.”
The organisation urged its members to change their water bill payment method by stopping debit payments, saying they should rather pay manually as they would have no recourse if these charges were debited from their accounts.
It suggested that residents should pay their municipal bills except for the portion that is being disputed, adding that it was in the process of lodging a formal dispute with the municipality over the matter. It also called on all affected residents to join the fight so they could be properly represented.
“We will not allow this conduct by the City to continue, as such our legal team has been briefed on this matter. We will pursue all avenues to ensure no resident suffers any prejudice as a result of these absurd charges,” said the statement.
DA councillor Yogis Govender said there are about 45 000 accounts, mostly from residential flat units, that were incorrectly billed and receiving 6 kilolitres of free water a month, or properties where the value was above the threshold to receive the free water.
“This fact was pointed out by the auditor-general and the City was then compelled to rectify bills by adjusting them from November. In addition, now that actual meter readings have commenced, these are causing more consternation as people are hit with unaffordable tallies on their accounts. These City blunders and failures have resulted in many facing unaffordable bills,” said Govender.
She described incorrect billing as a serious problem made worse by the fact that residents have little room to contest it.
“Unfortunately for thousands of residents who find themselves in a similar situation and who can’t afford to litigate and face the threat of disconnection, their only option is to sign payment arrangements or else.
“Also worth noting is that eThekwini’s policy to ‘pay now and dispute later’ is not practical as some residents are sitting with tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of rand of incorrect billing,” she said.
ActionSA councillor Zwakele Mncwango said the party will bring a motion in council to ensure that the municipality writes off the debt created after it made the blunder to credit households with an extra 6 kilolitres of water per month, who should have not been allocated the extra amount due to the value of their property being over the R250 000 threshold.
“Unfortunately, residents were not aware of the additional supply of water. Despite municipal leadership and management knowing that the error was made by the municipality due to their own negligence, residents are expected to pay the full amount once off or make arrangements to pay off the amount dating back to when the municipality begun supplying the extra number of kilolitres to residents, therefore, transferring the mess they had created to the people of eThekwini,” he said.
Several attempts made by The Mercury to get comment from the municipality were unsuccessful by time of publication.
The Mercury