Durban - Pay first ‒ ask questions later.
This has long been eThekwini Municipality's attitude concerning queries raised by domestic customers about abnormally high bills.
Failure to pay results in immediate disconnection of services, even where ‒ in an obvious error ‒ bills of a few thousand rand a month suddenly shoot up to hundreds of thousands.
Often the media have come to the rescue of panicked poor pensioners suddenly faced with astronomical bills which make no sense, and which eThekwini insists they pay, on pain of disconnection, while it investigates.
But of course there is no such action taken against government departments, which together owe more than R1 billion accumulated over years.
Contrast this with the action taken by the Johannesburg and Tshwane municipalities this week, disconnecting power to buildings belonging to the SAPS, the taxman, a railway station, and a hotel.
Tshwane collected R300 million of its debt in a few days, and Johannesburg R6m in four hours as defaulters, realising the days of payment impunity were over, rushed to pay.
I'm not saying that domestic defaulters should be given a pass. Just that business and government should be treated exactly the same.
That the same tough, uncompromising attitude eThekwini presents to pensioners should be shown to all its customers.
It would be interesting to see a breakdown between domestic, government and business defaulters, and the geographic spread within the municipal district.
The Independent on Saturday