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City of Joburg reduces billing problems
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PDF “Following public outcries and interventions from national government, the Gauteng Department of Local Government and Housing says the billing problem has been reduced significantly.”
According to the provincial government, the announcement follows a number of meetings between the City Of Johannesburg, Gauteng MEC for Local Government and Housing, minister of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Sicelo Shiceka and the Public Protector.
According to the provincial government, part of the resolution was a moratorium on cut-offs on all queries that were not resolved for over 90 days. The city also says it has also suspended its credit control process in order to fast-track the resolution of all queries logged.
“COJ is one of the largest cities in the world, with 1.2 million account holders. The task of managing such a number is considerably demanding.
However I am glad to say of the 60000 queries lodged since the problem started, 35 535 have been resolved, and the city will work around the clock to resolve all outstanding queries,” said MEC Mmemezi in a statement.
Head of revenue at the COJ, Gerald Dumas said the city is at the service of the residents and all the elements of improvements made would be solely for the citizens benefit of them.
“Our ongoing quest is to change the customer experience and to provide them with individualised response,” he noted. He added that 12 of the category A service centres would now open on Saturday and Sundays from 8am to 12pm.
Mmemezi further applauded the Public Protector for her interest in ensuring that the billing problem in Joburg was resolved. According to the statement, about 263 queries were received through the office of Thuli Madonsela and within 3 days 55 of those were resolved.
The Public Protector, addressing the media, said that her office was particularly interested in ensuring that complaints from members of the public were listened to and that they were resolved as speedily as possible. Whilst her job entails holding the state accountable, her role is also to reconcile the state and the citizens of South Africa continued the statement.
“Key to the eradication of this problem is the prompt response to all queries received. The promotion of governance within the city, getting things right the first time around, learning new and better ways of handling queries, a clearly articulated customer service charter that espouses Ubuntu principles, all of these will go a long way in improving the billing problems encountered by the City of Johannesburg.
The statement further says that the City of Johannesburg confirmed that it will improve and enhance communication between itself and residents of the city, engage with the customers regularly and improve turnaround times for customer queries. The city also said that they needed a minimum of six months to resolve all outstanding queries.
