Cogta steps in to resolve ratepayers, eThekwini dispute

KZN Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) MEC, Rev Thulasizwe Buthelezi met the eThekwini Ratepayers’ Protest Movement (ERPM) on Tuesday to assist in resolving a deadlock between the ratepayers and the eThekwini Municipality over back charges for the 6kl of free water provided to residents in error.

Former city manager Dr Mike Sutcliffe, appointed by Buthelezi along with former director-general in the Presidency, Dr Cassius Lubisi, to lead the Section 154 intervention in the City, was also present at the meeting.

Residents with houses valued at more than R250000 were receiving 6kl of free water for years in error and the City manually adjusted the bills of these residents without consultation.

ERPM chairperson Asad Gaffar said the City was aware of the issue in June last year but only acted on it six months later, when it manually adjusted the December utility bills without consulting residents.

“In December they told us only 49000 households were affected. No more, nothing more, nothing less. We said are you sure? They said yes ... in June and July this year, there’s another 50000 that have been back charged at a higher rate,” he said.

Gaffar said when two residents were disconnected for failing to pay the 6kl back charge, they decided to go to court.

“They had disconnected a few of these residents, we brought an urgent application in court against the City on these disconnections. Two individuals were affected but we included everyone involved in the 6kl dispute on the schedule,” he said.

Gaffar told Buthelezi the court action came after months of meetings and correspondence with the City over the matter, in which ERPM sought to determine how the decision to back charge was made and how the City established the amounts to be billed, among other issues.

The court ordered a draft consent that no disconnections would take place in future, he said.

This matter is part of a bigger billing issue which forced the Westville Ratepayers’ Association, an affiliate of the ERPM, to take the municipality to court last year over tariff increases – a matter which was won by the City.

Gaffar said the Auditor-General took a deep dive into these bills and found the City had been under billing its citizens for the last 13 years for water which they did not qualify to receive.

“Many of these individuals at one stage did qualify for it and it’s only because the property values on those properties had increased that they then fell off the threshold by a mere R5000 or R10000 whereas the criteria for that policy remained unchanged for 15 years.”

Buthelezi said he was concerned with the attitude of the City administration with regards to the way it handled the situation.

“You cannot write so many letters of grievance and not be given a platform to resolve them,” he said, adding that the municipality cannot unilaterally close a dispute if a customer is not satisfied.

Buthelezi said it was now important to find a way forward, noting that eThekwini was struggling to deal with revenue collection – a recent report found the City was owed more than R19 billion.

“As the provincial government, we want to avoid wasting so much taxpayers’ money on court cases, on something that is so clear and where the municipality has an obligation to act,” he said.

Buthelezi said he would meet eThekwini mayor Cyril Xaba to discuss a meeting between concerned parties.

Sutcliffe, who attended the meeting as an observer, said he was compiling a report to be handed to the MEC in the next few weeks and grievances outlined in the meeting would form part of it.

The Mercury