About 800 000 ratepayers were affected by technical glitches over the festive season that resulted in utility bills being sent out late, says the City of Johannesburg.
However, ratepayers have been warned to pay up, or face being disconnected.
Dada Morero, director of customer communications at the city, says the bills were sent out late due to a printing error at the city's outsourced printing partner. He explains that this delay meant the bills could not be posted in time.
In addition, says Morero, people who receive their accounts online were also affected. He says a different technical error meant residents did not receive their accounts via e-mail, and were also unable to view statements online.
Morero is still waiting for a report from the technical team as to the cause of the Web site and e-mail failure, which he expects to be resolved within the next two days.
Pay up
He apologises for any inconvenience, and says the technical glitches will not happen in the next billing cycle, at the end of this month. “There was a technical error, and the technical error has been resolved.”
The issue is not linked to a change in the city's IT services provider, says Morero.
Listed IT company Dimension Data took over the provision of IT services to the city after Masana Technologies filed for liquidation towards the end of last year, claiming that the council owed it at least R64 million.
The listed IT group took over the R230 million contract to provide end-to-end services to the city in September last year. The deal runs until this September.
Despite the bills being sent out late, the city still expects residents to pay up, or face being disconnected. He adds that the city will not charge interest on late payments.
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