I read an interesting story about Eskom’s decision to get really tough on power thieves and it’s trying to establish whether there are other laws that the utility can use to put the thieves behind bars. Some of the possibilities being investigated include fraud, racketeering and even seizing the offender’s assets.

Paddy Hartdegen writes a regular column for Property24.com

It occurred to me at the time that perhaps Eskom should start with City Power and the City of Joburg because by all accounts these two organisations may well be fleecing electricity consumers of millions of rands every month.

Or, of course, they could just have made a great many errors when it comes to compiling the bills. Possibly putting decimal points in the wrong places over and over again.

Even council employees staged an impromptu strike this week claiming that they were sick and tired of management and its mistakes. One can’t blame them really because the employees in the Braamfontein offices come in for a constant tirade of anger and abuse because of the errors that the Joburg council keeps making.

Of course the other fact that one must question is the voracity of the figures that the City of Joburg bandies about – like the fact that it is owed R12-billion because Joburg’s residents are so tardy about paying their bills.

Well I wouldn’t pay a R2 000 bill attributed to my account when I have a pre-paid meter installed. Would you?

I bet, though, that that amount will reflect in Joburg’s accounts as being outstanding.

Just as a bill received by The Star’s reporter Anna Cox for R15 149 will be seen as an outstanding debt. Her average monthly bill is R1 300 a month until, out of the blue, she gets an account for R6 700 and then, a month later, another one this time for a total of R15 149.

And, she says, the council insists that the amount showing on the account is correct.

Several months ago, the chaotic state of Joburg’s Phakama billing system, implemented at a cost of R580-million even prompted council spokesman Nthatisi Modingoane to suggest that pre-paid meters be installed in all houses in the greater metropolitan area to overcome the problems caused by the billing system.

Just stay with that thought for a second: An advanced, computerised billing system is designed, commissioned and implemented. It doesn’t work. So the council suggests dropping the system and installing prepaid meters instead.

Why not just fix the system?

Anyway, let’s get back to the problems that the City of Joburg has. It’s evident that a great many residents are receiving incorrect bills and are being charged for services they have not received or electricity they have not consumed.

Hopefully Eskom’s billing system is better than Joburg’s. I say hopefully, but then it is a government department in the guise of a public enterprise, so I don’t say that with much conviction.

Hopefully Eskom can provide reasonably accurate figures of the amount of power it has supplied to the City of Joburg and the amount it has charged for supplying that power.

The next step, surely, is to take the amount of power supplied by Eskom and deduct the amount of power supplied to residents in the City of Joburg and there you have it: the figures should balance to, say 97% or maybe more.

Ideally it should be a hundred percent but who has ever heard of a government department getting everything right?

I’m sure this approach is way too simple for the City of Joburg to consider.

After all T-accounts are not well understood just as T-squares are thought to be places where people gather for a convivial chat over extended periods.

However, I reckon that if the City of Joburg added up all the electricity consumed in its fictitious and erroneous accounts sent to residents they’d quickly realise that they had used considerably more electricity than Eskom billed them for.

So if their accounts are right, then they are guilty of thieving vast quantities of electricity from the utility company that generated it. And if that’s the case then they should be charged with fraud, racketeering and plundering government assets for good measure too by Eskom who is looking for legislation that can be used to convict electricity thieves.  

Now that’ll give the okes in management at the City of Joburg something to think about.

If the City of Joburg has billed residents for more electricity than they’ve supplied then I think the residents should get together and bring charges of fraud, racketeering and plundering government assets against them too.

The City of Joburg is between a rock and a pretty hard place right now.

Charge on by the one hand or the other.

And that’s exactly where they should be for causing such a mess in the city’s billing system.

Of course the problems with electricity consumption and the excessive bills are not limited to Joburg. I live in Pretoria and have done for years, but I subscribe to a number of different websites as a matter of course so that I can keep an eye on developments in other parts of the country.

So you can imagine my surprise when I received a polite note saying:

“Dear Account Holder,

“It has been brought to my attention that you have received multiple copies of the same municipal invoice for January 2011.

“The city apologises for the inconvenience.

“The problem was caused by a technical fault and is receiving attention. We expect to resolve it shortly.”

It was signed by Petro Rheede, acting director: revenue at the City of Cape Town.

So now Cape Town’s billing me for living in Pretoria – that’s taking discrimination a bit far isn’t it.

Of course she doesn’t say anything about whether the duplicate accounts should be paid by me or not but somehow I doubt it.

If it was Joburg, I’m sure they would insist I pay both accounts and if I didn’t then they’d just disconnect  my service anyway and demand that I pay duplicate deposits on my account too.

The really sad thing for me is that Joburg’s residents do really want it to be a world class city. Joburg residents are a vibrant lot who support community ventures, take the trouble to get out and about, spend large sums of money supporting city ventures and do take a lot of pride in their city.

To them it matters and it’s such a pity that the council – and all its members – do not share the same kind of passion.

Except, of course, for those brave workers who went on strike in support of the citizens because they know that the council’s bills are so wrong.

Readers' CommentsHave a comment about this article? Email us now.

*Hartdegen writes a regular column for Property24.com. The content of his columns constitutes his personal opinion and doesn’t pretend to be facts or advice. Contact him at paddy@neomail.co.za.

Readers' Comments Have a comment about this article? Email us now. 

Paddy, and the editor - There is one simple solution which would save millions of rands of foolhardy attempts to put new structures in place, as the saying goes - and that's for all Joburg ratepayers and registered voters to vote the current council out. I humbly recommend that, in their place, they vote for a DA-led council. 
Cape Town was recognised late last year as the city with the top service delivery in every respect, in the country. It is run by a DA-led council. Further, Richard Baloyi, National Minister of Local Government and Traditional Affairs, praised the DA provincial government of the Western Cape late last year, too, for being the only provincial government in SA with a 100% clean audit. Services can only work and be delivered when the basics are right and civil servants and their managers and political bosses are motivated, focused, proud of their record and their profile, and prepared to be of service to the public rather than merely wield power and draw salaries.
The simple remedy is a change of guard, a clean sweep. Let another lot do the job. And the DA is the best of the rest. Give them the vote in the coming municipal elections. If you are unsure, merely google City of Cape Town and see for yourselves.
Cape Town has been heaped with international honours over the past two to three years. There was Mayor Zille's Global Mayor of the Year award; there were many others; and the latest is a vote by several thousand subscribers to Conde Nast travel magazine, that says Cape Town is the best city in Africa-and-Middle-East.
The reason being good governance, vision, motivation, passion, compassion, and focus. - Peter Merrington (Dr), Cape Town

Excellent article, one mistake – City Power IS NOT ALLOWED TO DO ITS OWN BILLING by the City of Johannesburg. It is forced to use the Council’s billing system (although being a separately owned company) – hence the chaos. City Power also only gets paid once the City collects the money. So-double whammy – can’t bill your customers and can’t get your hands on your own money. Nice, eh? - Les Kügel

“The next step, surely, is to take the amount of power supplied by Eskom and deduct the amount of power supplied to residents in the City of Joburg and there you have it: the figures should balance to, say 97% or maybe more.” The problem however is that Joburg has hundreds of illegal electricity connections, especially in squatter camps, which are consuming a large amount of the electricity supplied by Eskom, that are obviously not billed by Joburg. So the equation will read:  “Total supplied by Eskom = Electricity consumed by metered customers + electricity consumed by illegal users”. It is therefore impossible to balance the supply and usage as suggested in the article. - Karl Smit

I think you have hit the nail on the head. People being over charged should take out a class action suit against City Power.
If I had been an attorney I would have headed down to Jorrison street this week and offered my services to the masses of people waiting to have their accounts queries resolved.
I received a bill in May 2010 where the meter reader incorrectly read the 10 000kw dial.
He read my meter as 11755 instead of 1755. It’s a simple mistake and probably happens often.
The only problem was that this mistake cost me approx R5000 extra in electricity on my bill.
I called the helpline and they agreed this was an obvious mistake and it should be sorted out swiftly.
8 months later and I am still battling to have this resolved.
During this 8 month period I have been charged service fees and interest on the arrears.
Finally in January I receive a letter at my home to say I have been disconnected (but I still have services!)
The following day I receive an amended bill with a refund.
The only problem is I can’t make head or tail of the account, which paid in desperation because I didn’t want to be disconnected.
Is it going to be another 8 month wait if I ask for a reconciliation of my account? - Jill

I am having the same thing here in Durban, I have spoken to the Municipality and they tell me the account is correct and I must just pay. I paid the first amount of over R4309.95 and now I have another account of R3126.83. My normal monthly account ranges between R1600.00 – R1800.00.  I would like to know who is going to address this problem and who can a person speak to, as the person who answers the phone refuses to put you through to anyone else, and you just get told to pay or they will cut your lights off. Please can this be taken further, or at least give names of people who are willing to listen. - Sharon Stephen

I sent an email to Joburg City – after 8 months of phoning and (if ever I’ve finally got through without them dropping the line) getting reference numbers and promises of corrections, I’m still no better off. Our whole street is in the same situation. I’m number 10 but the physical address on my account changed to number 8 some time around April. Number 12, who is not paying his water bill at all, has his accounts addressed to number 10 (ie, my address.)  For FICA/RICA and Clearance Certificates on sale of property, this is a serious issue. Day-to-day, though, I live in fear of Final Notices for accounts which are not mine, and wait for them to visit my house (again!) to cut off MY water for bills unpaid by my neighbor (who probably wonders why he should pay an account not for his home…). When I originally phoned in May (I’d been double billed and asked to change the address back to the original one), they told me that all the meters had been positioned by GPS (good GRIEF! Show me a GPS that’s accurate!), and that many other addresses were in the same situation, it would be changed soon. How many other residents are suffering the same? I’d be grateful to see an article appear on the address issue!! - Sue

It's hardly surprising that Joburg's billing system is a colossal mess - 80% of ERP systems are a failure when they are rolled out. City Power installed a SAP ERP system, a mistake from the start since the people responsible for installing it cannot do it properly and City Power has no idea what they want from it. SAP has been the subject of some hefty lawsuits from some big companies in the USA for the way in which their systems ruin profitability - the State of California, Levi Strauss, Fox Meyer Corp, W W Grainger Inc, Hershey Foods - the list is almost endless. As is usually the case, the system was oversold to the client who fell for the hype and jargon. The fact that the the city is prepared to scrap a system that cost more than a half a billion Rand just goes to show what a waste of time and money it was. Of course, no-one will get fired for this - nobody ever does. The ratepayers will just have to eat the loss, because they always do. - Patrick

Very good article. However, and this is my opinion, you all have it wrong. This debacle started with the “Mega City Council” change. If the sub councils had have remained in place, i.e; Sandton, Randburg, etc., this would not have happened. The smaller councils and billing systems worked wonderfully. I’m not sure, but I think the smaller or ‘distributed’ councils also provided more jobs than the “Mega City”, single department does. I think it’s time to disband this monolith of incompetence, and bring back the simplified distributed infrastructure that is more personal and that is there to serve the residents. In this way if the IFP gets voted in, in say Randburg, they put the council in place and serve the people they represent. If the DA get Sandton, et al and if the ANC get city centre, they can continue the incompetence. - David

Just somethig I would like to share with the readers.
A few years ago in Moffat Park near South Hills we suddenly had a squatter camp setup over night and after trying to to do the right thing, contacting the police and council, all we had was a larger camp.
The ratepayers association then decided to form a trust account, and all the residents paid their rates and taxes into this account instead of to the council. Well word spread of this action and before long we had people from as far as Sandton doing the same, in sympathy with us.
It did not cost a lot, and these guys  really react when they get hit in the pocket, soon the squatters were removed , everyone submitted their deposit slips and got their deposits back and then paid the money over to the council.
All this without a court case.
If it goes to court it will be delayed and postponed for years.
I believe the logistics of cutting 10 or 20 thousand people off and then re connecting them will be a nightmare, also Escom will cringe as they would have so much surplus power, not to mention the loss of income due to lack of supply.
Every time I hear of something like this my blood boils , now it is the fault of a R580 000 000 accounting system, last it was ENatis for the drivers license and I could add a few more millions wasted, and in the near future the new toll system. - Wayne

On the flip side – as a person who has, over a year ago, sold a property and paid up 6 months of billing in advance and is yet to receive a cent of it back, how much does the city owe it rates payers in respect of deposits not refunded? The city is quick to disconnect you when you owe them but equally as quick to ignore your claims or even quicker to mess up your “clean account” to render all the money “used”. I implore the City of Jo’burg to stop running round and publicising how much its ratepayers owe it and spend a bit of time rather focussing on how much it owes its rates payers. This time could be better used in cleaning up its billing processes and instilling some accountability amongst its management and staff. Maybe then, if you apply a bit of offset, you could work out that these are just people withholding monies because of what is due to them….perhaps one will find a large population of your “debtors” that are in fact “even”, or worse still, creditors! - Eugene