Following a recent story on how City Power’s billing failures have shut down businesses, Energize received this letter from Johannesburg resident Joe Janse van Rensburg, describing how a similar pattern of billing errors, disconnections and lack of action has pushed his household toward complete grid independence.
“It is regrettable to have read the experience of companies featured in your recent article. However, our experience takes this billing and accounting issue to residential levels as well.
“We own a property in South Johannesburg that has been supplied with three-phase power for the past 12 years. Over this period, we have managed to reduce the household demand to 20% of the original demand.
“City Power installed a remotely accessed post-paid meter, which was metering reasonably accurately according to my own five-minute energy meter until March 2024 when the City Power meter faulted. It displayed only “Error” on the screen and no remote terminal connection could communicate with it.
“Johannesburg Council/City Power began estimating our usage, which according to my meter was between 500-700 kWh per month until December 2024 when I received a bill for 3 400 kWh. In subsequent months, this usage was billed progressively higher – up to 5 100 kWh.
“On May 8 this year, the council acknowledged receipt of my query, complete with supporting usage data and a graph. Nothing was done.
“By June, we owed the council over R80 000 due to this meter/billing error. In July, they obtained a meter reading – despite the meter still showing an error and no one entering my property. Based on this questionable reading, they credited the account for a previously overbilled period (November 2023-April 2024 for which we had already paid five months) and then debited the account for July with a reconciled credit. They continued billing at six to eight times our actual usage, adding this to the faulty starting balance to bring the account to R103 000.
“It is the third time over the past 12 years that they have taken money in this manner. On two occasions, they disconnected supply without notice for a week – despite the fact that we perform daily, critical, essential operational work from home. This created cost burdens and security risks for my family.
“As a result of these disconnections, we installed a solar system, at half the quoted cost of three years ago, and plan to go fully off-grid with electricity and water by December. In speaking to other customers, I have found similar experiences with Johannesburg Council and City Power. At this rate, more customers will be driven off-grid by this kind of service delivery and disconnections.
“City Power has known about the faulty meter since April 2024 and has sent multiple meter readers and technicians – all have said they cannot replace it due to a lack of three-phase meters in stock. An audit in July 2024 confirmed the meter was faulty and required replacement.
“This council has failed us since we moved to this property. This service falls short of what paying customers should expect.”
Editor’s note: City Power has since reached out to Energize regarding the billing issue. We will be running a separate story on their response.
