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Editorial:Naude’s successor should clean up billing

Kennedy Mudzuli

Oops, Erika Naude is no longer the director of billing in the City of Johannesburg. The sad part is that even her former colleagues in the municipality think she is still in charge of the department.

Yes, no confirmation was obtained from Naude before the article, Billing issues easy to resolve, was published a fortnight ago, and the Sandton Chronicle apologises to her for incorrectly linking her to the department. She has since indicated she vacated the position almost a year ago.

In her response Naude said, ‘It is the same way in which I can criticise your article as bad journalism aimed at creating sensation rather than reporting facts.

‘Clearly no investigation or attempt was made to get a comment from the City of Johannesburg.’

She went further to say, ‘Imagine a society where it is accepted that life is not perfect but, rather than complain about it, we all worked together to solve the problems.’

But what Naude didn’t know was that the editorial comment reflected the views of frustrated property owners out there. These are people who are billed for properties they don’t own, or pay rates for a school while the land is a parking lot.

And whenever they attempt to get explanation from the municipality, are told to pay first and argue later, or risk being blacklisted with the credit bureaus.

Journalists regularly work with city council attorneys in resolving some very serious billing problems. They don’t have to help, but they do because of their commitment to the communities they serve.

According to Naude, there may be problems with individual statements, but these could be resolved by following the correct procedures and working with city council rather than against it.

Well, not quite. The complaints that reach the news desk weekly are accompanied by evidence that complainants have exhausted all options over a number of years.

These problems could be avoided if Naude’s successor did the job effectively.

kennedym@caxton.co.za

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Kennedy Mudzuli