Joburg’s billing system still dysfunctional, says former City Power chair

Following years of bungled utility bills and promises by Johannesburg mayor Herman Mashaba to rectify the crisis, the former chair of City Power says the billing system of SA’s biggest budget municipality is still dysfunctional.

Fixing the crisis was a key campaign promise of Mashaba, who took over the reins of a minority DA-led coalition government after the 2016 local government election. The city has, however, denied that the billing system is dysfunctional, saying that it “cannot be true by any measure or industry benchmarks”.   Lael Bethlehem was appointed City Power chair after the DA-led government took over and replaced ANC stalwart and former director-general in the presidency Frank Chikane in March 2017. The entity contributes a large chunk of the city’s revenue. Bethlehem did not re-apply to be board chair of the entity  and handed over the reins to new board chair Lerato Nage at City Power’s annual general meeting last week.  In her presentation at the AGM...