Municipal turnaround

It is with apologies to the Johannesburg municipality and to oft-maligned Nigerians that I compose this piece.

If you remember, in my last column, I issued a vitriolic attack on the Johannesburg municipality`s billing system. What sparked my outrage was a shockingly written letter that I had received from a gentleman purporting to represent the council, demanding that I settle an unresolved outstanding amount on my utilities bill.

The letter threatened me with all manner of unpleasantness, like being evicted or having my furniture repossessed, if I did not pitch up at the given address to make the payment. A subsequent number of heated telephone conversations with the letter-writer saw me labelled as anti-ANC, racist and the likely future victim of criminal activity in my area due to my behaving as an "extraordinary citizen" unwilling to grease the cogs of government.

Being possessed of a hefty dose of common sense, and no small measure of moral outrage, I decided to take the issue directly to the council, rather than mucking about with some illiterate power monger. But first I penned a column outlining my disgust at the fact that government would outsource its debt collection to a person who possessed the linguistic abilities of a Nigerian scammer.

It was with a heavy heart that I set out for Jorissen Street. Despite the municipality`s admission that its systems were in a mess, I held out little hope that this would have resulted in any real change. I was preparing myself for a morning spent in queues, only to have to restrain myself from lunging across a counter and clawing my way through a Perspex barrier in an attempt to rip out the oesophagus of an offending municipal official.

Despite the municipality`s admission that its systems were in a mess, I held out little hope that this would have resulted in any real change.

Georgina Guedes, editor, ITWeb Brainstorm

To my eternal delight, at no time did such enforced restraint become necessary. Upon arrival, I had to queue briefly at a reception desk to explain my problem and be given a pass to the appropriate counter. My account query was to be dealt with by the accounts department, while the questionable letter was to be handled by someone in legal. I was then ushered through to a new area where I was only made to wait for about five minutes before an accounts official could see me.

The gentleman who helped me had obviously had adequate training in the IT system as well as in general municipal accounting. He was able to understand the overcharge on my account in a few minutes, and resolve it within about half an hour in consultation with his supervisor.

Even some minor confusion about the lingering interest on the fictitious amount was cleared up with the minimum of fuss. The council has even done away with the Perspex barrier, perhaps as a sign of its confidence that the murderous tendencies of Johannesburg residents will be allayed by its newfound efficiency.

Heartened, I proceeded on to the legal department, where I presented the letter for inspection. The initial concern of the clerk to whom I presented the letter was that I had not paid the individuals the money that they were trying to extort.

That resolved, she initially didn`t see too much of a problem. It was only when I drove home the point that this character somehow had access to my exact account details that she started to take notice.

When she checked on her system and realised that the letter-writer penned my name with exactly the same spelling error as the council had on its records, she suddenly became very worried. She vanished into some dimly-lit back room, and returned about 20 minutes later, a bit breathless, and requested that I make my way up to the council`s lawyers on the second floor.

After years of begging inefficient municipal officials to let me see their supervisors, here finally was a dream realised, and all thanks to the deeds of a particularly nefarious outside party.

While the lawyers on the second floor weren`t able to shed much light on the matter, other than to guarantee that Fezela Bathungathi Properties (the name on the letterhead) had never been given a mandate to collect debt for them, and that they had never heard of them.

However, the scammer had been stupid enough to give an address, and the lawyer took a copy of the letter with the intention of getting their auditors to set up a "payment" so that they could convict the scammer of fraud. They have assured me that they will be getting back to me to let me know what happened.

So, I am in the pleasant position of having to eat my words. The municipality has, in fact, improved its service, and the illiterate prose which I was so hasty to attribute to a Nigerian were in fact fashioned by a genuine, home-grown, proudly South African scammer.