Pretoria – Pensioner Renette van Staden, 63, is at her wits’ end after unsuccessfully pleading with the City of Tshwane to rectify her incorrect municipal account.
She is a beneficiary of the City’s indigent programme and lives at the Stalshoogte flats in Arcadia which are owned by the municipality.
Van Staden claimed her bill of R1 600 for water and electricity was above her monthly pension grant from the government.
She said: “The charges of my water and electricity have increased from R300 to R1 600. When I went to the City they said they’ve got nothing to say to me and I must just pay.”
She has been living in a bachelor flat since 1982.
“It’s the first time they’ve sent me this higher account,” she said.
Her story regarding the unacceptably high municipal bill was common among other residents. They bitterly complained that the municipality was overcharging them, and attributed the problem to the unfair estimation of debts made by the officials.
Gretchen Meyer said: “I have an account statement that I must pay R6 084. I went to municipal offices in Centurion last Monday and they said ‘Sorry, you have to pay R400 every month’. They cut off my water and lights. Yesterday I paid R400 and my electricity is still off.”
Aletha Pretorius said her electricity was cut off last year after she was told she owed R3 420.
“They told me I must pay over R28 000 because they have removed the electric wire from my meter box.”
Another bee in the residents’ bonnets was the deplorable condition in which they were forced to live because the City had neglected maintenance of the building.
“The pipes are very old and I’m still waiting for them to come and fix my geyser, which is still leaking,” Pretorius said.
Paint was peeling off and the place was infested with rats, she said.
“You must hear when the rats play on the roof. You must take a stick and beat the roof so they can go quiet.”
DA representative in ward 92 Anru Meyer said the problems with the dilapidated building and inflated bills had continuously been raised with the municipality without success.
The building was donated to the old council many years ago to accommodate the poor. The City of Tshwane inherited it when it was formed in 2000.
“The City is supposed to maintain this building and ensure that whatever is broken is being fixed, which is not happening,” Meyer said. The City had not respond by time of publication.
Pretoria News