A large number of customers from Region A and the surrounding areas visited the regional Customer Service Centre at 300, 15th Road Randjespark, Midrand, to get answers to their lingering billing questions on Saturday, October 22 2022. Municipal-owned entities and City departments, including City Power, Joburg Water, Citizen Relationship and Urban Management in Region B, Community Development’s Expanded Social Package (ESP) unit and pensioner’s rebates set up booths for residents who came in their numbers.
The City decided to hold Open Days in response to requests from customers who couldn’t visit customer service centres during regular business hours on the week and who had ongoing billing issues that required them to visit walk-in centres, according to Zanoxolo Mbingeleli, the Acting Assistant Director for Revenue in Region A.
“We answer questions immediately, which is one of the most important aspects of these Open Days. We send a meter reader to the customer’s location to read the meter, then send the reader back to record the accurate readings and promptly reverse the estimates,” said Mbingeleli.
“Assisting us in converting our category customers from unoccupied land to residential, business to residential, or vice versa is the evaluations department,” he added.
“We also offer ESP, which helps residents become eligible for free eight kilolitres of water. Customer services also offers debt rehabilitation to help consumers. They accept applications from customers who want to sign up for the programme, while the rates department deals with questions about rates, the refunds department deals with refunds, the credit management department helps if a disconnected customer pays now so we can send a team out to reconnect the customer right away, and the legal department helps customers who want to make arrangements on their accounts,” concluded Mbingeleli.
Property owner Camira Naidoo from Carlswald was all smiles after her long-standing query was finally resolved.
“I’ve had this problem for a long time and I have been explaining that I suspect that my meter might be mixed up with someone else’s as I have been receiving exorbitant amounts for water use and we are only three in my house and no swimming pool.
“I’ve been to Randburg and Waterfall when it was still operational and when I saw the notice for this open day, I told myself that I am giving the City one more chance to resolve this query and here I am, and happy to say my problem has been resolved,” she said.
Clive Maluleke from Lombardy assisted to consolidate his accounts to get only one bill from the City.
Written by Luyanda Lunika
24/10/2022