Despite ongoing exposure of City of Johannesburg fraud on multiple media channels, the consumer who goes online with an abnormal water or electricity account is still easy prey to scammers claiming to be municipal contractors. Scammers trawl online residential groups such as “I love Melville/Westdene/Fourways", looking for vulnerable consumers who have posted their billing troubles on the group.

Within minutes of posting about my abnormal water bill of R40 000 on “I love Westdene" on 25 May, I received a WhatsApp from someone called “Vusi", who claimed he worked for the City of Johannesburg and would “log a query" on my behalf.

“I want to see how quick I can escalate because the technicians will take days. I will call in some favors and let you know. You will need a new meter as per the technician. New meter is quite expensive will be a cost of R7 500," he wrote.

I responded, “but surely a new meter is for the council's expense"? He replied: “Yes, but that will end up costing you more as the more it runs the bill will run to Almost R100k before they fix it."

I wrote: “If I pay someone unofficially, I will have no legal protection and could still end up liable for the bill."

He replied, "The bill I will recall for you." A day later, I was referred by an active Westdene citizen to an “account fixer" called Jeena, whose WhatsApp name is “SJ Accounts Fix". He immediately promised he could get the bill halved within 10 days, even if the leak was inside my property. He required payment of half the bill, plus his R3 000 “service fee".

To prove his “credibility", he sent a number of other City of Johannesburg bills that he allegedly got “fixed". Some reflect a large City of Johannesburg “write-off" amount, but this does not prove that he had anything to do with it.

It doesn't help that some City of Johannesburg call centre operators are unhelpful or provide incorrect information. When I went to Turbine Hall at the Joburg Water head office for​ assistance, I was flatly told the bill is my responsibility and there is nothing I can do about it. No mention was made of the Debt-Relief Programme, which is my next step.

Meanwhile, the Water Fault logging system does not guarantee that technicians do their job. I initially logged a meter fault, picked up at Langlaagte depot, but the ticket was closed with a claim that they “couldn't find the address", according to the City of Johannesburg operator who logged my second call.

It is in the interests of City of Johannesburg to service its community, to act against these scammers but also to help consumers rather than obstruct them in getting highly stressful issues like mine resolved.

City of Johannesburg's Group Finance Customer Communications Director Kgamanyane Maphologela urged residents, businesses, and account holders to remain vigilant as criminal syndicates continue to target customers with fraudulent schemes disguised as official City communication.

“Residents must not trust anyone claiming to be from the City or acting on behalf of the City without verifying them. Should residents be suspicious of unknown people soliciting payments, they should contact the City to verifying the identities of anyone claiming to be a City representative through the City's Anti-Corruption Hotline (0800 002 587), Johannesburg Metro Police Department or any other law enforcement agencies to report such persons," said Maphologela.

Written by Helen Grange
04/06/2026

Joburg Resident and Writer at Good Governance Africa – www.gga.org

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