A march to protest the ongoing billing crisis affecting City of Johannesburg residents has been labelled as “disappointing” by the Democratic Alliance (DA) councillor who organised it.
The protest action, which took place outside Thuso House, in Braamfontein, this morning, was attended by a few hundred people. DA ward councillor David Dewes says he was really disappointed at the limited turnout.
Dewes says: “I think civil society sucks.” He points out that there are thousands of people living in the city who have issues with their bills, but the amount of people who attended the march, which became violent at one stage, was disappointing.
The city is dealing with at least 60 000 enquiries from residents relating to bills that are over-inflated or do not reflect payments, among other issues. Residents have been cut off for not paying outrageous invoices.
However, despite the thousands of people affected by the crisis, only about 250 people turned out, says Dewes. “Civil society must get out there and say enough is enough... We must take to the streets in our myriads. They must wake up and smell the roses.”
The Joburg Advocacy Group, which supported the action, is also disappointed that the protest was not much bigger. Founding member Lee Cahill says about 500 people attended the march in total, but people kept coming and going.
The city is making the right noises about fixing the issue, but this is too little, too late, argues Cahill. “People were arriving with their bills... It's just one horrendous story after another, and it's the same story time and again.”
City officials were not immediately available to comment. However, the city has set up an outbound call centre to deal with enquiries.
A video of the protest action will be posted on ITWeb on Monday.
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Joburg sets up hotline for billing crisis
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