City's Systems Collapse

Among the most common failures in the city's billing system is disconnections without warning, often on Fridays, long reconnection delays and hefty fees. Picture: Nigel Sibanda

- Anna Cox

Some of the billing disputes: Client G: the guesthouse in limbo

In 2011, G rezoned his property with City of Joburg's approval to operate as a guesthouse. A decade later, the city reclassified the account as "business use", backdated to 2018. Sewer charges and penalties ballooned to R250 000.

Despite repeated queries, letters of demand and appeals, nothing was resolved.

In August 2023 the High Court in Johannesburg ordered the city to rebill the account within 14 days and barred disconnections until the process was complete.

Yet the city ignored the order and disconnected the property weeks later.

Since then, G has endured five further unlawful disconnections. HBGS, G's law firm, has launched contempt proceedings against the acting municipal manager.

Tarica v City of Joburg

The Tarica family discovered their municipal account, still registered in the name of a deceased relative, riddled with decade-old charges and faulty meters. When the city disconnected the supply, they went to court.