Levy uproar: Tshwane’s response to billing mistakes

THE City of Tshwane has maintained that it reconfigured its billing system to rectify the erroneous R194 cleansing levy charged to around 12 000 customers in September amid threats by disgruntled residents to boycott payments until they received sefiinds.

- RAPULA MOATSHE

The cleansing levy, which applies to property owners using private waste collection services, was declared invalid by the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria on August 1, following a legal challenge by AfriForum. The city has since lodged an appeal with the Supreme Court of Appeal.

Obakeng Ramabodu, Member of the Mayoral Committee for Environment & Agriculture Management, said progress has been made in rectifying the billing system error that led to incorrect cleansing charges on some municipal accounts.

He said following the discovery of the billing anomaly, the city swiftly established a dedicated task team comprising technical and finance experts to correct the issue.

“To date, the billing system has been successfully reconfigured to ensure that the cleansing charges are applied only to qualifying accounts, specifically those that do not receive municipal waste collection,’ he said.