Tshwane Waste Bin overcharge dispute settled

06 August 2021

The municipal account of a Gauteng man, who racked-up a bill of R43 000 over a period of more than a dozen years after being overcharged for waste management services, will now be credited with the amount owed to him. The credit will be put towards his household’s monthly consumption until it runs out.

The man approached the Public Protector in November 2020, alleging that the City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality supplied him with an 85 litre refuse bin in 2006 but had somehow been charging him for a bin that was more than twice the capacity of the one he signed up for, resulting in an overpayment of about R173 00 per month over approximately 170 months.

He told the Public Protector that he brought the fact that he had been made to pay for a 240 litre bin to the attention of city officials on several occasions. However, all his complaints seemingly fell on deaf ears as the problem did not go away.

In response to the Public Protector’s queries, the city conceded that it was at fault. Officials indicated that they had adjusted the charges from 2006 to 2021 and that an amount of more than R30 000 had been credited to the man’s account.

“The account has a credit balance of R32 768, 41 and will be used towards the monthly consumption until the credit runs out,” the City said in a 24 May 2021 correspondence to the Public Protector.

Following the Public Protector’s intervention, the relieved man wrote to the office, confirming that the municipality had made the necessary adjustments to his account. “I want to take this opportunity to thank you all for the hard work,” he said.

Entrust the Public Protector with your maladministration complaints after exhausting all available remedies. However, we have suspended walk-ins at all our 18 offices due to COVID-19. Rather email your complaints to registration2@pprotect.org.