Joburg unable to serve its ratepayers

A week before the City of Johannesburg is due to appear before the National Consumer Commission tribunal in connection with its billing woes a confidential report has revealed that South Africa's richest city is neglecting its ratepayers.

A development planning and urban management report for the second quarter of last year showed that the city ignored most calls to its customer care lines originating in one region of the city.

The report on region E, expected to be tabled at a council meeting next week, will reveal that municipal entities have resolved only 39% of the complaints made to the city call centre.

Region E includes Sandton, Alexandra, Norwood, Oaklands and Houghton Estate.

The low rate of complaint resolution in the region is blamed on lack of asphalt to repair potholes, insufficient equipment and too few skilled personnel.

The report, to be made public next week, says the city attended only to less important calls from residents between October and December.

The Joburg Roads Agency, City Power, City Parks, Pikitup and Joburg Water are mired in a billing crisis and about 200 residents lodged complaints with the National Consumer Commission in July.

Next Wednesday, the City of Joburg appears before the commission's tribunal to appeal a compliance notice issued by national consumer commissioner Mamudupi Mohlala last year.

The report, which mainly analyses service-delivery breakdowns in urban management departments, says: "After analysing the extent to which the municipal-owned entities are able to resolve logged calls within the stipulated turnaround times - as stipulated in their respective service-level agreements - it is evident that most are not in compliance.

"There are no metre covers at Joburg Water, no asphalt and cement in stock at the Joburg Roads Agency, insufficient equipment (front-end loaders and tipper trucks) or human resources at Pikitup, a backlog in street repairs due to too few vehicles, and too few electricians to cope with the number of non-functional street lights."

A city spokesman, Nthatisi Modingoane, would not comment on the grounds that the report had not been made public.

A first-quarter report tabled at a council meeting last month revealed that 725 of the 1891 calls lodged at the municipality's call centre, or 38%, were unresolved across the city.

Last week, DA spokesman Marcelle Ravid said the Joburg Roads Agency was in "dire straits", managing to attend to just 39% of complaints lodged at one regional call centre between July and December.

"The agency will not be able to resolve traffic light issues in a hurry as 60% of about 2000 traffic lights in Joburg use old technology for which parts are no longer available."