The City has gradually begun opening its Customer Service Centres to resume revenue-generating services, as the Gauteng province prepares to move to level 3 of the national lockdown next week.
The first of eight centres assigned to open to the public Mondays to Saturdays was the Sandton Customer Service Centre in Sandown, which has been deep cleaned and disinfected in preparation for operations to resume.
Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) that include soaps, sanitisers and gloves for cash-handling staff have been supplied in all centres. The City has also procured thermometers to ensure all the 30 percent staff returning in each centre are screened for clearance.
“These interventions are supported by the City’s Covid-19 healthcare workers who have been providing training to staff on how to keep safe in the work environment since the lockdown began,” says Jolidee Matongo, the MMC for Finance.
Matongo says the City will continue to adhere to prescribed disaster management regulations and guidelines from the Ministry of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA). “The same will be expected from all people entering our customer centres,” he says.
Public health regulations governing the lockdown include social distancing, the wearing of cloth facemasks in public spaces, hand sanitising and screening at entrances.
“The centres being opened are category A facilities, which offer the full bouquet of municipal services like meter readings, account adjustments and resolution of queries, among others. Services like rates clearance certificates, which had continued being processed throughout the lockdown, will still be available online through the City’s e-Clearance platform accessible to conveyancers,” the MMC explains.
Municipal account payments can still be made through either electronic fund transfers, automated teller machines or telephone banking as well as through third parties such as Easy Pay in various retail stores: Pick n Pay, Shoprite, Woolworths and the Post Office.
Customer Service Centres will facilitate payment arrangements for people and businesses in financial distress as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic and the lockdown in a bid to boost revenue collection efforts after a significant drop was recorded in April 2020.
