The City of Johannesburg refutes claims and incorrect allegations that it bailed out of scheduled Billing Open Days as purported in a media statement issued by the Democratic Alliance dated 22 October 2020.
We note with great regret that the Democratic Alliance chose to issue a statement which is factually incorrect, unsubstantiated, defamatory, and highly biased towards misinformation.
The City planned and timeously communicated its series of Open Days. The Region E Open Day was planned and executed on the 10th October 2020 at number 137 Daisy Street, Sandton.
The planned Open Day was carried out as stipulated, followed by a week-long extended hours (07h30 to 17h00), where municipal owned entities (City Power, Johannesburg Water, Rates and Taxes, and other departments within the City of Johannesburg where partaking.
The City confirms that a total of 1423 customers visited the educational driven Open Days in Region E, where queries varied between billing, rates, refunds, valuations, legal, and others.
To date the City has successfully conducted the following Open Days:
• Region B, Randburg Customer Service Centre on 19/09/2020;
• Region G, Eldorado Park Customer Service Centre on 26/09/2020;
• Region F, Thuso House Customer Service Centre on 03/10/2020;
• Region E, Sandton Customer Service Centre on 10/10/2020;
• Region A, Waterfall Customer Service Centre on 17/10/2020.
Kgamanyane Maphologela, Director for Communications and Stakeholder Engagement said, “The allegations made by the DA are totally wrong and far from the truth as can be seen in the statistics above.”
The remaining series of Open Days is scheduled to be hosted as follows:
• 17/10/2020 to 22/10/2020 - Region A, Midrand
• 07/11/2020 to 12/11/2020 - Region C, Roodepoort
• 14/11/2020 to 19/11/2020 - Region D, Soweto
The City is committed to serving its residents and continues implementing ways to improve customer service to all ratepayers. “Open Days are part of the City’s own initiative to ensure all queries are a thing of the past,” said Maphologela.
For more information on all customer service offerings, visit www.joburg.org.za or call 0860 562 874. You can also send an email for payment arrangements to creditcontrol@joburg.org.za
Issued by:
Kgamanyane Maphologela
Director: Communications and Stakeholder Engagement
Group Finance
Email: stanmapho@joburg.org.za
