This is according to DA ward 43 Clr Bruce Reid.
“Collections rates in the metro dropped from the target of 93 per cent to 90.02 per cent in the current financial year. While the postal strike may have been responsible for a small part of the decline, the metro has a responsibility to ensure that other means of communication are implemented to invoice residents,” says Reid.
“It is also up to ratepayers to continue to pay an average amount on a monthly basis so that when they finally receive their bills that are not left with an unaffordable outstanding balance.
“It is ludicrous that in a country with one of the highest saturation rates of cell phones in the world that the metro is unable to communicate more immediately and accurately with rate payers than just through the Post Office.
“If the opposition was in charge of Ekurhuleni it would initiate a drive to move ratepayers onto the metro’s e-siyakhokha site in order to have a record of all cellphone numbers and email addresses to use in postal strike situations.
“Added to that, we would implement the City of Cape Town’s excellent communication system whereby bulk SMSes or emails are regularly sent to ratepayers keeping them informed of planned outages etc. for their convenience.”
In the absence of this and to deal with the current crisis, the metro should be doing more and phoning residents to alert them to the balances and due dates on their accounts, he adds. -@NalediBoksburg
