Joburg's billing chaos is not a new problem. In this file photo, Dr Goolam Moosa was shocked by his R99 728 power bill.
Few issues generate as much frustration among Johannesburg residents as the city's billing system.
Every month, thousands of households and businesses open their municipal statements with uncertainty. Some receive bills that bear little resemblance to their actual consumption. Others receive no bills at all.
Many spend months, and in some cases years, attempting to resolve disputes through a bureaucracy that often appears incapable of providing answers.
While billing disputes have become so common that many residents have almost accepted them as a normal part of life in Johannesburg, we should resist the temptation to normalise dysfunction. The collapse of a municipal billing system is not merely an administrative inconvenience. It represents a fundamental breakdown in the relationship between a city and the people it serves.
