The official opposition, the Democratic Alliance (DA), has submitted more than 2 700 Johannesburg billing queries to the National Consumer Commission (NCC) and asked for an investigation into the city's billing issues.
Thousands of residents have had problems with incorrect bills as a result of post-implementation problems, after the city moved its disparate systems onto a SAP platform through a project codenamed Phakama. The move cost at least R580 million.
The City of Johannesburg has been reducing the backlog and said, last month, that only 437 issues, dating back to last October, still had to be sorted out of the initial 200 000. Of the new queries, from November onwards, 50 000 of 277 000 issues still had to be solved, but most were less than 30 days old.
However, the DA has consistently argued that the billing crisis is far from over and continues to affect revenues, the city's ability to collect revenue, and its cash position.
Investigation needed
Mmusi Maimane, DA national spokesman, says he met with representatives from the NCC yesterday morning to discuss it starting an investigation into the city's "failure to resolve the billing crisis effectively".
Maimane says the party has submitted more than 2 700 unresolved billing queries to the NCC, all collected from members of the public who attended its billing assistance day on 9 September.
The NCC came into being last April as a result of the Consumer Protection Act (CPA). It was previously unsuccessful in trying to force the city to solve issues after the National Consumer Tribunal cancelled 45 compliance notices issued by the NCC to the city.
The tribunal's second decision relating to the CPA found the NCC did not follow proper procedures before issuing notices to the city. Johannesburg had objected to the notices, arguing it had already resolved many of the issues cited.
Broken promises
Maimane says there are several troubling issues about the unresolved billing situation, including that numerous Johannesburg residents are still receiving incorrect bills. The city's claims of resolving the billing crisis are therefore false.
In addition, Maimane argues that the city's promise to resolve the backlog by the end of June is false. He says the solutions Johannesburg has put into place to deal with issues have failed.
Maimane says the NCC should serve a series of compliance notices on the city to compel it to either attend to the billing problems of its residents, or face significant financial penalties; and even criminal prosecution by the NPA.
NCC acting commissioner Ebrahim Mohamed was not immediately available this morning to comment on the DA's request.
Stan Maphologela, deputy director of customer communications in the city's revenue and customer relations department, did not respond to several messages requesting comment.
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