23 January 2004 Press Release City does stock taking on residents account The City of Johannesburg today announced an investigation on customer's accounts status. Council said the move was necessitated by the intense credit control it announced in December last year. City Manager Pascal Moloi said the city was being owed R5, 9 billion and the city handed over R4, 6 billion to attorney for collection. As a result, thousands of the city's over1 million-account holders jammed the city's customer care systems as they flock to verify their credit standing. He also said marginal errors were being experienced and these had to be attended. 'As a result, a team has been assigned to scrutinise every account of all residents who have questioned the status of their accounts. A review of meter reading, billing and accounts delivery will be amongst things to be checked. 'While we continue to process other revenue business as usual, we hope to make announcements on progress by end of February. Other announcements relating to progress on revenue collection will be made,' said Moloi. He advised residents to continue paying their accounts even when being investigated. He said accounts would be flagged where necessary. Consumers who have any queries or complaints to lodge are encouraged to call our call centre. Contact details for the call centre are as follows: Telephone number (011) 375 5555 Fax number (011) 375 6555 E-mail Address joburgconnect@joburg.org.za Consumers can also lodge their queries or complaints at regional municipal offices and council will endeavour to deal with those complaints as quickly as possible. Regional help desks have been set up at our call centres to assist those regional offices with limited network access, which also increases the time taken to deal with queries. Further contactable numbers are as follows: For queries on an account: FAX (011) 358 3409 For queries if you have been disconnected: TEL (011) 358 3003 (this number is available from 07h30 till 16h00) (011) 358 3008 (This number is available from 16h00 till 19h00) FAX (011) 358 3164