Ageing infrastructure, non-payment, theft, vandalism, political interference, corruption, complex procurement processes, unrealistic budget allocations and a skills shortage – the challenges faced by municipalities are enormous. And as a Johannesburg resident, I see it from both sides: Navigating potholes, water outages and missed waste collections while understanding the sheer scale of what these entities are up against.

By Kirsten Kelly

But let me take you into the reality of what this Johannesburg resident is up against: An R88 196.73 bill based purely on estimates so wildly inaccurate you would think I was running a hotel, not a household of four. And I have solar.

More than a year ago – the start of the billing fiasco

On the 10th March 2025, without warning, a contractor arrived at our home to replace our meters. No explanation. No paperwork. Just a knock on the door. Our domestic worker did the sensible thing. She called us, photographed his credentials, and the meters were replaced.

And just like that, the chaos began.

• April 2025 – statement still indicated old meter numbers with an estimated reading
• May 2025 – statement still indicated old meter numbers with an estimated reading
• June 2025 – statement still indicated old meter numbers with an estimated reading
• July 2025 – statement still indicated old meter numbers with an estimated reading

August 2025 – suddenly, an ‘actual’ reading appears… on meters that no longer exist.

These ‘actual’ readings are also different to the closing readings of the meters that were removed.

• September 2025 – back to estimates, still the wrong meters
• October 2025 – still estimates, still the wrong meters

November 2025 – Seven months later, the new meters finally appear on the system.

The estimates? One is 50 times higher than the actual reading. The other more than double. The bill lands at over R74 000.

• 27th November 2025 – My husband queues at the Sandton Customer Centre with photographic proof. Reference number issued. Promises that the bill will be updated.
• December 2025 – a statement was received and nothing was rectified
• January 2026 – an email was received stating that the query was resolved
• February 2026 – a statement showing that nothing has been resolved

17th February 2026 – my husband returned to the Sandton Customer Centre with fresh photos of the readings, only to be told the previous query had not been resolved, despite the email saying otherwise. The reason? No newspaper in the background to prove the date. The new photos were also rejected. Apparently, a timestamp is not sufficient evidence. He was then sent to City Power in Alexandra to upload the readings. From there, he was redirected to City Power Johannesburg in Doornfontein. After being passed from one desk to another, someone in a back office finally logged the readings.

He was reassured it was captured.

Now it becomes serious

• 20th February – we found a home we wanted to buy, and our offer was accepted.
• 27th February – we listed our home for sale.
• March 2026 – a statement was received and there is no resolution. Instead, we are charged a disconnection fee. We were never disconnected.

16th March 2026 – My husband’s patience had run out, so I took over.

I phoned the City of Johannesburg to ask how to submit meter readings. I was told a photo stamp would be fine. I got a reference number, emailed the readings, and waited.

24th March 2026 – I phoned again to check if my meter readings had been received. They had not. Instead, I was told I now needed to buy a newspaper, stage a photoshoot with my meters, and include the date as proof.

26 March 2026 – I went to the City of Johannesburg Customer Centre in Braamfontein, armed with my newspaper-approved meter photos. After a very long queue, I was told I couldn’t email or WhatsApp them. I had to print them. So I left, printed the photos across the street, came back, queued again, and handed them over. A new reference number was issued. My printed photos were handed straight back to me.

27th March 2026 – we received an offer from a couple to buy our house, and we accepted

8th April 2026 – I phoned City of Johannesburg to ask if the new meter of readings are logged. The answer is no. I need to give them 30 working days to do this. And nothing can be escalated as my most recent reference number is only a few days old.

13th April 2026 – received the recent statement and nothing is resolved

14th April 2026 – phoned City of Johannesburg again. I have been told that my query is acknowledged. She cannot tell me the outcome and reminds me that they have a month to resolve this.

I have so many unanswered questions

What is the point of a smart meter if you cannot take readings remotely? Why can’t customers with smart meters submit readings on the City of Johannesburg App? Why is no one coming to physically read my meter? Surely you cannot bill someone on estimations for 12 months in a row? Why is it so hard to take meter readings? How can the City of Johannesburg charge a disconnection fee when nothing is disconnected? How can they threaten disconnection when we are continuing to pay what we think we owe? Why is it so hard? If you don’t trust your customers to take meter readings then surely you need to have a plan B? Does the newspaper idea not sound archaic? Why is this so hard? What do I do? Where do I turn? How do resolve this?

What I do know is

My house cannot transfer until this bill is cleared. And right now, that feels impossible.

Because if the City of Johannesburg cannot capture a simple meter reading, what chance is there of fixing bigger issues like asset management, budgeting, crime or vandalism?

At this point, this no longer feels like a system under pressure. It feels like one that has simply stopped working. In fact, it feels like the City of Johannesburg is actively refusing to accept my meter readings. And it raises a bigger question. If estimates are consistently inflated, is this just incompetence, or is something else going on? Because at some point, it starts to feel like no one wants to admit that the City might actually be owed less.

What is frightening is that this is not a complex engineering failure, this is a basic administrative one. South Africans go to work every day, meet deadlines, solve problems and pay their taxes. Why is it too much to expect public institutions to have some level of accountability?

If City of Johannesburg cannot upload a meter reading, how can they run a city?

By Kirsten Kelly