It seems eThekwini Municipality has made quite the splash—though not in a good way. A billing error has left thousands of ratepayers soaked with water bills dating back to 2020. The kicker? These are charges for free water they shouldn’t have even received in the first place.
The issue stems from the municipality providing “free basic water” to homes that didn’t qualify—yes, the ones valued over R250,000. Now, the bill for this “free” water is due, and residents are not happy about it.
Some homeowners now face hefty fees—one bill reportedly hit over R4,000, with monthly payments of more than R400 to settle it. Naturally, the ratepayers are calling for the entire debt to be written off. After all, why should they pay for the municipality’s blunder?
Teddy Govender of the Chatsworth Ratepayers Association didn’t mince words: “The incompetence and corruption are clear. We’re calling for a write-off.”
Other groups, like the eThekwini Ratepayers and Residents Association, echoed this sentiment, insisting that the municipality should foot the bill for their own mistakes. They’ve even written to the CFO demanding clarity and asking for the disputed amounts to be halted, especially for those on debit orders.
ActionSA’s Zwakele Mncwango weighed in, calling the situation “robbery.” Meanwhile, the DA also backed a write-off, noting that residents shouldn’t suffer from poor administration, especially in the wake of higher interest rates and declining services.
While the municipality apologised, they made it clear that the debt still needs to be paid. A spokesperson blamed a “technical error” and confirmed that around 49,000 out of 514,000 affected accounts were wrongly credited with free water. The city will be collecting those funds, whether residents like it or not.
It seems this issue isn’t drying up anytime soon, with ratepayers promising to escalate matters if a resolution isn’t reached. One thing’s clear: they want their “free water” bill written off—and they’ll fight to make it happen.