The City of Johannesburg has been struck by a crippling failure of its billing system, with more than half its April bills affected. This might result in a R1.3bn cash shortfall. On Wednesday, the DA said it suspected that the system had been tampered with. The crisis comes a day before the DA-led coalition government presents its first budget. About 85% of the city’s R55.9bn budget is dependent on revenue raised from ratepayers and consumers. In a statement yesterday, executive mayor Herman Mashaba said the failure in the customer service system resulted in 412,000 monthly accounts not being issued, while 97,000 statements were issued incorrectly. The city was working to ensure all accounts were issued this week and those issued incorrectly were corrected. "This will result in certain households receiving two statements this month; we apologise for any confusion caused. Double billing is a historical issue in our city and we have plans in place to ensure it is a thing of the past b...

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