EDITORIAL: City of Tshwane’s billing blitz bother

There’s much to be said about the City of Tshwane’s blitz to collect R17bn it is owed for rates, power and water. The hot air from the city is that it’s finally ending the culture of nonpayment from institutions including the government, embassies and large companies.

And while there are grains of truth in what the city says, this is far from the whole story. This "culture of nonpayment" is what happens when you have a billing system that is about as reliable as the power grid people are being charged for notionally accessing.

Many cities — like the endemically clueless City of Joburg — often seem to be run by sociopathic, power-mad, petty bureaucrats who routinely make a hash of the bills they send out. Stories of citizens getting bills for hundreds of thousands of rands are legion.

So, while it may seem only right to cut off nonpayers, there is sympathy for businesses like Club Crossing Shopping Centre, which went to court to get an order that the City of Tshwane reconnect the services.

As the court said, the city has a duty to issue proper accounts, and ratepayers must be given a fair opportunity to object to the charges. The bureaucratic vampires should know it isn’t just a one-way street.