KNYSNA NEWS - Knysna Municipality will be writing off a portion of water debt for residents, especially those in Hornlee who have been plagued by faulty devices producing erroneous readings. This was one of the matters that were tabled at a special council meeting on Monday 15 April.
Later on Monday, the municipality posted on its Facebook page that it is setting aside R24-million to write off debt on water services charges.
"This write-off is meant to provide relief to communities that have received and complained about the huge water account bills because of inaccurate billing. This will go a long way in addressing the frustration of our people in Hornlee and other areas. Details on how the process will be administered will be published in due course."
Deputy mayor Ricky van Aswegen told Knysna-Plett Herald that in his ward, which includes Hornlee, there are 114 houses without water meters and that prepaid devices are now being installed. "It is council's policy that every household must have a water meter," said Van Aswegen.
Faulty old meters
He said some of the residents in his area have had serious problems with the old meters' readings in the past, which in some cases led to bills of R600 000, and writing off the debt would amount to the municipality taking some responsibility for flawed readings.
"The old water meters are faulty so we are billing people wrongly and can't expect people to pay for things they didn't use. So, by writing off a percentage of the debt the municipality takes into consideration that some of these people will never afford to settle their accounts, and also acknowledges that faulty meters are the municipality's fault," said the deputy mayor.
No obligation to get prepaid meter
Another point on the agenda was the issue of people refusing to have prepaid meters installed, and it was resolved that these people would not be forced to do so but should they want to have them installed at a later stage, they would be charged a fee of R3 500, starting 1 July.
Hornlee United, a group of Hornlee residents who has been dead set against prepaid water meters, say their fight against the prepaid meters has nothing to do with refusing to pay for services as such.
Speaking to KPH on Friday 12 April, Ralph Stander and Neil Louw of Hornlee United said, "In Hornlee we've always had water meters and have paid, but our problem with this prepaid system is that if you don't have money to buy water you will have no choice but to go without – and water is a basic human right."
ANC lashes out
On the same day, the Knysna ANC's regional secretary Moyisi Magalela issued a statement saying the ANC rejects with contempt the allegations previously made by Hornlee United to the effect that the ANC supported a decision to install prepaid water meters in nonwhite areas only. "The allegation is devoid of all truth as no such council resolution was ever taken in the Knysna municipal council," the statement read.
Magalela said the decision to install prepaid water meters was for various reasons: "Firstly, our communities of Hornlee, Khayalethu and Concordia have for years complained about high water accounts and requested measures to deal with this. Current water accounts are based on estimates, and faulty meters and leaks have resulted in high water accounts," he said.
"Secondly, no water meters were installed in certain government housing developments in Hornlee and the northern areas. Our water shortage challenges have also forced the municipality to regulate water usage of all households and to ensure that households pay for water usage above the free 6 kilolitres."
Magalela also said that Hornlee United is politically driven by members who support the EFF and the Independent Civic Organisation of SA (Icosa), who want to gain political mileage for their respective election campaigns. "The ANC is proud to support the initiative for the future sustainability of our town and making all our people responsible citizens who contribute to the development of our town," the statement read.
Hornlee United retorts
In turn, Hornlee United's Ralph Stander responded by issuing a statement saying their stance as a movement is to appeal to Hornlee residents to not vote for parties such as the DA, ANC and Cope, which support the installation of water meters.
In the statement, the movement also expressed surprise at the Knysna ANC's attack on the leaders of Hornlee United and the Hornlee community at large. "We have a few questions that really bother or perplex us and these are: why would the Knysna ANC go through all these lengths to defend a DA council decision seeing that they are the official opposition in the Knysna Town Council and seeing that they portray themselves as fighting for the poor? How can a so-called nonracial ANC support a racist and illegal decision… Why would the Knysna ANC fight for prepaid water meters while the ANC in Cape Town are fighting against it?"
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