Please note that Randburg Depot will be conducting an Emergency Shutdown in a part of Craigavon on the 30^th of November 2011.

Area affected: Randa rd to end of Inchanga rd, Craigavon

Start Time: 8am

Completion Time: 6 pm

Reason: Tie in and installation of new valve at Cnr Inchanga and Perm rd

Tanks: Fernbrook estate, corner Perm and Inchanga Rd, Randa rd at Crawford Pre primary school

Alert: Bump and highjack Recent incident recorded at the intersection of 3rd and Cedar where an individualin their car was bumped by a Blue ToyataTAZZ at the robot and when they got out to investigate were High Jacked.

Should this happen to you, switch on Hazard lights , do not get out, watch the other vehicle if suspicious, indicate that they should follow you and proceed to the nearest populated point eg Garage, police station call 10111 and report a suspected high-jacking in progress, give them your registration and destination point eg BP garage at Broadacres. If able provide the other vehicle description.

Awareness is the thing that will save you,  record as much detail on the vehicle and occupants as possible and report it to SAPS.

(Adopted from a newsletter sent out by Cllr Amanda Forsythe)

Dear Resident,

I have been inundated with emails from frantic residents who have either received service termination notices or who have had their electricity or water cut off by the City for so-called ‘non-payment’.

The reason why I’m sending out this message is to inform you on the latest developments with regards to the Johannesburg Billing Crisis and to advise you on the best available course of action should you be a victim of the recent cut-off campaign.

Firstly, if you have been served a termination notice, please do take it seriously! Even residents with valid, open disputes with the City regarding erroneous bills are being cut off at the moment, and the City is employing private contractors who are paid per customer they disconnect.

Given the urgency of the situation and the fact that our efforts to escalate your queries and problems to the designated departments, the VIP Unit is severely understaffed and completely overwhelmed by the volumes of queries being escalated by Councillors. Our best advice is to go directly to the Billing Centre at Thuso House, 61 Jorrissen Street, Braamfontein and do not leave there until your problem has been resolved. Alternatively you can go to the Randburg Walk In Centre which is located at corner Jan Smuts and Bram Fischer Drive in the Randburg CBD.  The Call Centre is able to assist you log your queries or give you status on outstanding queries with the City - 011 375 5555 Option 1.

The good news is that the MMC for Finance and the new City Manager, Trevor Fowler, have at last admitted that a problem exists and have committed to fixing the Billing system. The bad news is that they estimate that it should take approximately 19 months to resolve the problem!

I assure you that myself as one of the DA Councillors on the billing task team as well as other Councillors are doing absolutely everything in our power to help residents and to force a more speedy resolution of the problem, but as the opposition party, we cannot change the Billing system nor stop the cut-offs, we can only try to hold public officials to account and pressurize the administration into fixing the problem.

Hope this gives some insight into the current challenges faced with regards to the billing system.

Should any residents have long outstanding queries and need assistance with the process to follow to resolve the query, you are welcome to contact me.

Some tips:

·         Payments must reach the City on or before the due date; pay a few days before to ensure your payment is captured before the due date.

·         Payments by credit cards take the longest to reflect on the City's system

·         Payments made by credit card in excess of R5618 within the same month on any number of credit cards will incur a 2.5% administration fee

·         The Walk in Centre in Randburg is open between 7:30am and 3:30pm Monday to Friday

·         The COJ Call Centre has improved and calls are answered in better time. During some periods of the day, calls will take longer to answer.

·         Rather Phone or Visit the City regarding your account than email or fax.

·         You must have a unique 8000XXXXXX reference number for each query you have with the City. No reference number means the City does not know you have a problem.

·         Take regular readings of your water and electricity meter and ensure that the readings correspond to the ones that you are being billed for. Also check that the meter that you are being billed for is the meter that is in the ground - check and compare meter numbers.

·         Ensure that your meters are accessible and easy for the meter readers to spot, open and read

·         Regularly check your water meter for leaks and report to Joburg Water should you notice a leak