Mr Maphologela said this week that e-services were an initiative of the city meant to provide online access to a range of services for individuals and businesses in the greater Johannesburg area. "Mail gets lost in the post office, or gets delivered to the wrong address and as a result the customer never receives his statement. There is also a lot of returned mail with wrong addresses," he said.
The city would, however, still use ordinary mail for invoices.
Critics have cautioned that the City’s IT infrastructure is not up to scratch, and the quality of the billing data is critical in ensuring an effective online migration.
The city launched a revenue intervention programme in November last year, committing to address inaccurate billings and queries. Residents have for months been complaining about incorrect bills for water and electricity.
Last month the city reported billing problems had resulted in growing levels of nonpayment of services, which had risen dramatically over the past eight months.
Democratic Alliance Johannesburg caucus leader Mmusi Maimane said going online was necessary, "but the quality of the data is critical".
He said the city was spending about R700000 every three months on the IT infrastructure, despite that it was ailing. "Everything from the billing point of view must be customer-centred," Mr Maimane said.
Mr Maphologela said the benefits of receiving statements electronically included the ability to view up to 12 months of backdated statements. "In addition, some elements of our online system are being reconstructed to improve the customer experience," he said.
Future developments included the ability to pay accounts online.
In his state of the city address in February, mayor Parks Tau said the City of Johannesburg expected to raise more than R100bn over the next 10 years from its own resources, as well as through partnerships with the private sector, for investment in infrastructure.
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Autor(en)/Author(s): Setumo Stone
Quelle/Source: Business Day, 11.04.2012
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