Jo'burg Finance MMC refuses to accept unresolved billing queries
Today we tried to hand over 3000 unresolved billing queries to Johannesburg's Finance MMC, Geoffrey Makhubo. I sincerely hoped that Mr Makhubo would accept these queries, and resolve them as soon as possible to help the families that have been struggling with inflated and incorrect municipal bills.
But unfortunately that did not happen. Mr Makubo's office refused to accept the bills and went so far as to call in the JMPD to remove us from the premises. It seems that Mr Makubo has bowed to political pressure from the ANC. Yesterday the ANC released a statement urging Mr Makhubo to disregard these bills, because we were apparently attempting to "skip the queue".
This is laughable for two reasons:
Firstly, the ANC in Johannesburg has been claiming for many months now that the billing crisis and all outstanding queries have been resolved. So, according to their previous statements, there really shouldn't be a queue in the first place. The thousands of unresolved billing queries we received from the public is a testament to the fact that this is just not true. There is a crisis, it has not been resolved, and the ANC in Johannesburg is in denial about that fact.
Secondly, the people who submitted their unresolved problems to us for assistance have been waiting for many months, some for several years. A vast majority lodged multiple complaints, but have never received any response from the City, and their problems still haven't been resolved. So the fact of the matter is that these people have been waiting in the queue, but haven't been helped.
The City of Johannesburg, the ANC and Mr Makhubo are doing everything they can to avoid admitting the extent of the crisis or accepting responsibility for it. Instead, they are finding excuses for their inaction, believing that in a crisis it is better to do nothing. But the billing crisis must be resolved, and we will not rest until it is.
Statement issued by Mmusi Maimane, DA Caucus Leader in Johannesburg, September 5 2012
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