Joburg Lockdown Consumption Hikes Utility Bills

13 August 2020

MEDIA STATEMENT

Joburg lockdown consumption hikes utility bills

The City of Johannesburg appeals to residents to use water and electricity sparingly during the Covid-19 National Lockdown to mitigate consumption resulting in higher than normal municipal monthly bills for the resources.

The appeal comes after numerous customer queries were received for consumption bills issued during the lockdown period. However, the City has established that most of the bills issued were accurate.

The bills can be attributed to high consumption, which is the biggest driver of higher municipal bills for both water and electricity. The City has continued to measure water, which has recorded more queries, on actual usage based on meter readings obtained.

It must be noted that during the lookdown period, there were particularly general increases in water usage for residential properties. This is directly linked to that the lockdown has mandated residents, both adults and children, to stay at home and only leaving their homes to purchase essentials.

Furthermore, non-revenue water loss also increased due to non-reported leaks and old infrastructure.

All these factors have contributed to the increase in the consumption of municipal services.

It must also be noted that in July, the Johannesburg Council approved reduced tariff increases for both water and electricity of 6.6% from a proposed 8.6% and 6.23% from 8.10%, respectively.

As lockdown rules continue to be relaxed, residents may start seeing their consumption returning to normal.

Municipal account holders in financial distress are encouraged to contact the City’s Credit Control Department to make special payment arrangements via email on [email protected].

Ratepayers who still wish to query their bills can log queries via any of the region-based emails.

NAME OF CUSTOMER SERVICE CENTRE	Email Address
Waterfall CSC	[email protected]
Randburg Civic Centre	[email protected]
Roodepoort Civic Centre and City Hall	[email protected]
Jabulani Civic Centre	[email protected]
Sandton Regional Office	[email protected]
Thuso House CSC	[email protected]
Lenasia Civic CSC	[email protected]

Issued by:

Kgamanyane Maphologela
Spokesperson
Communications and Stakeholder Relationships
Group Finance

Phone: 011 358 3420
Fax: 011 358 3639
Cell: 0817073196
Email: [email protected]