For the past six days, residents of Melrose Gardens complex have been without running water as they allege the contractor assigned to reconnect their water attempted to solicit a R2,500 bribe.
Residents from the complex in Illovo, Sandton, told TimesLIVE Premium on Monday they've been left high and dry after they refused to pay and have been sent back and forth by the City of Johannesburg, who after promising to reconnect them now says they shouldn't be reconnected until an agreement is reached.
Their water was cut off on Wednesday afternoon due to a billing dispute that the trustees have been trying to resolve with the COJ.
“We went to the COJ offices on Thursday and Friday, and they agreed it shouldn't have been cut off and that they would send a technician. A contractor was assigned.
“On Saturday, the technician arrived and looked at the meter and saw that the strainer had been removed. They called the team that had disconnected us and that team [allegedly] asked for a payment of R2,500,” said a trustee member who didn't want to be named.
He said the contractor who had asked for the R2,500 told them it was a payment for after-hours work. The trustees refused to pay the money and the water has not been reconnected.
According to the trustee who spoke to TimesLIVE Premium, their plight started when the water meter was damaged towards the end of last year. At the time, there was also a leak that has since been repaired.
The city then started to bill them through estimation, but residents believed the bill was exorbitantly higher than their consumption.
“Unfortunately the combination of a broken meter and the leak makes it difficult to work out what our usage during that time was.
“We are talking about the reading based on the broken meter before it was replaced. COJ gave us a backdated bill for the water for R1.2m, and we are disputing that,” he said.
He added that though they have a new meter, they were disputing that the COJ continues to bill them based on an estimated reading on their usage from last year when there was a broken meter and a leak.
“For that they are charging us R144,000 a month for water, they think we use 92-kilolitres of water a day and with what's in front of us we use on average 25kl of water a day,” he said.
The trustee said the city was charging them between three to eight times more, and when they calculated their usage, they should have been paying between R13,226.37 and R16,662.21 a month for water usage.
“We have been fighting with COJ about this for the last week. We visited the office this morning [Monday] and spoke to an extremely sincere and professional person in the logistics department who promised that we would be connected within an hour and a half.
“We have also been told we will be reconnected within an hour for the last three days. We are not celebrating,” he said.
The issue is that we reported this bribe as corruption and now the city is coming back and asking whether we should have been reconnected in the first place. I think they are retaliating against us for mentioning the bribe.
— Trustee member
Their water had not been reconnected by Monday evening.
He said it wasn't in dispute that their water should be reconnected as they had seen the reconnection instruction and that it was assigned to the contractor.
“The issue is that we reported this bribe as corruption and now the city is coming back and asking whether we should have been reconnected in the first place. I think they are retaliating against us for mentioning the bribe.
“We should have been reconnected, we have been arguing about this for a week. We know the case very well, but I am worried that I can only see that as retaliation because it wasn't a problem until we mentioned the bribe,” he said.
Residents have hired a consultant to fight their case.
Another resident who is also a trustee, Natasha Robinson, said there were two communities in the complex with owners of the main units and rooms for about 30 domestic workers living and working in the complex.
“For the people who are living in the units, we can afford to buy water if we need it. Most have cars and [our local retailer has] the system where you pay R1 per litre for water. So a lot of us have been doing that.
“We also have some elderly people in the complex. I know there have been a lot of problems, [but people are] helping them carry the water upstairs. Those with gym memberships have been showering at the gym,” she said.
She said the challenge was that domestic workers share kitchens and toilets and do not have cars to collect water.
“We noticed some of them have been walking 30 minutes to other areas carrying 20 litres of water in wheelbarrows. As a community, we started to collect all of the domestic workers' buckets and my husband and I went to a friend’s house and filled about 200-300 litres of water into those buckets and then we drove back to the complex and distributed it to everybody,” she said.
But while the residents wait for their taps to start dripping again, Kgamanyane Maphologela, the director of communications and stakeholder management at City of Johannesburg group finance, painted another picture.
He said records show that the customer has entered into an acknowledgment of debt (AOD) with the city.
“The signed AOD states that the customer must pay R31,698.90 to reduce the arrears debt and pay their current debt of R190,186.11. In total, the customer must pay the city R221,885.01 as part of the agreement,” he said.
He added that their system shows that the customer has been making monthly payments of only R66,698.90, which is far less than the R221,885.01 amount they are required to pay monthly as part of their signed agreement.
“This means that the customer is defaulting on their AOD agreement with the city, resulting in the disconnection of their services. We understand that this situation can be challenging. Still, we urge the customer to contact the city as soon as possible to discuss a plan to bring their account up to date and avoid any further interruption of services.
“The city stresses the importance of customers always paying the agreed amount in time and in full. The city also cautions that the logging of the query doesn’t exclude the responsibility of the customer to paying the services,” he said.
Meanwhile, Johannesburg Water spokesperson Nombuso Shabalala encouraged residents to report bribery allegations.
The entity would then issue a notice to investigate and contact the customer to get more information.
“Johannesburg Water has strict policies in place regarding bribery. Residents should immediately report Johannesburg Water employees or contractors who try to solicit bribes from them. If possible, get the names and numbers of the solicitor(s), take a photo of them and their vehicle registration number,” she said.
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