IN-DEPTH
Joburg to tackle billing chaos with new system and tighter operations
Finance boss Rabelani Dagada’s job is on the line if he cannot clean up the flawed and corrupt process
The City of Joburg Metropolitan Council was inaugurated in 2002, following an amalgamation of the 16 councils that governed SA’s largest city during apartheid. While the political divisions were successfully dismantled, the city has battled to unify the billing systems of the previous administrations, setting in motion a crisis that bleeds R1.5m a day in rates and taxes. The city has lost up to R5bn annually due to incorrect information in its monthly rates and services bills sent to residents. At a restaurant at OR Tambo last week, flanked by his spokeswoman and adviser, Dagada presented his blueprint of a turnaround plan. "The amalgamation of the council, that’s where it started," he said. The next problem was the failure to implement a system application program code-named Phakama. There was no proper clean-up of data when it was transferred to a new system, which caused technical issues with billing. The municipality did not "conclusively" deal with initial issues and queries fr...
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