By the Knysna Bulldog
In a moral world principles are more important than numbers.
I state this clearly because you may think this story is about a trifling amount of
R10.77c. It is not. It is about fair dealing, trust and respect. It is about integrity.
In this case, the customer is a humble and rather old Knysna ratepayer and the provider
of inadequate services is the local municipality.
Let’s go a little deeper. If you purchased goods at a shop, paid cash and found that the
shopkeeper had cheated by giving you R10 less change than you were entitled to, you
would have reason to be angry. Right? Or if you bought three kilograms of potatoes and
the shop parcelled up 2.5 kg of spuds and charged you for three you would also have
reason to be angry. Right?
The anger is proportional, not to the R10, but to the realisation that there are probably
many thousands of other victims out there who are being robbed R10 at a time.
Now let’s get down to the details. The doddering pensioner mentioned above drove into
town to pay his municipal rates account on the normal working days between Christmas
and New Year only to find that the municipal office had closed at 12 noon. Other
businesses, from banks to shoemakers, were open so what was the problem?
Undeterred, he tried again the next day with the same result. Finally, on January 3 the
Main Street cash office was able to accept his money. Phew!
The real shock came later in the month with the new municipal account. Because his
payment was a couple of days late, the municipality had added 11.5% in interest. (The
attempts to pay the account had probably cost the pensioner more than double the
interest charges thrown at him.)
So let’s analyse this. The municipality reduced the pensioner’s opportunity to pay his
account and then, when he failed to make the payment before noon on two perfectly
normal business days, they punished him by adding 11.5% interest to his account. He
became the victim of poor municipal service, but he, not the inadequate municipal
service, had to take the blame and pay up. Shame!
For the trifling sum of R10.77 the municipality is destroying trust and goodwill, one
resident at a time. This can only end badly.