As a nurse, I work twelve hour shifts and besides my two days off every week, during the week, I get every second weekend off, and my weekends off are three days. Those three days are much needed to catch up with the usual household chores and more importantly to recharge myself. Part of that recharging involves catching up on what I enjoy doing, be it reading, writing, gardening a little or watching a few of my favourite Tv series and maybe a movie or two. Of course making sure I get good quality sleep and rest on my time off is also important because I work nights and the quality of sleep during the day is not as good as sleeping at night. Recharging and sleeping well is really important, because to look after your patients well, you need to look after yourself well. For the most part I get the balance right.
Unfortunately sometimes that balance gets a bit topsy-turvy for reasons I have no control over and on Friday morning that balance was knocked out of whack. I’d had a busy night at work. It was a very humid day, so after I’d had a cool shower and eaten I went to sleep with the fan on. I’d probably been asleep for an hour and the fan stopped. When it stopped I knew the power was off, as power outages are common in South Africa 🇿🇦. As I called out to my husband, he told me we had been disconnected because we were (supposedly) in arrears. I knew we weren’t. Our municipality #Pietermaritzburg #MsunduziMunicipality is a poor excuse of a municipality. Our city is literally a dirty and crumbling. Potholes everywhere and broken pavements. Frequent power cuts, mostly because of lack of maintenance. Water leaks are common, also because of deteriorating infrastructure.
Their billing department is extremely atrocious. They have kept me in arrears for an amount I paid over a year ago. They have also out of thin air, this month, added an “installment payment plan, which is for people who are in arrears and can’t pay their bill all at once. Well, I am not in arrears in the first place.
So, after a busy night at work, I had to get out of bed, go into the middle of our messy and busy city and sort the issue out. When the consultant looked on the computer, she said I was fully paid up. When I asked about the two amounts I supposedly owe, she told me they are not on the “system”. Yet they show up on my statement and because of that I get disconnected! One hand doesn’t know what the other hand is doing, although I also believe more and more, that it is a ploy by them to squeeze as much money as they can out of us, by deceptive means. They don’t budget properly and, they waste money, never mind their corruption and dodgy tenders. This is how most South African government departments work these days, unfortunately. Anyway, they reconnected us a few hours later. This sort of thing is not isolated, it happens to so many people who are up to date with payments. They also do disconnections mainly on Fridays because they know people don’t want to be without power over a weekend. By all means, go after those who don’t pay, but for those of us who pay timeously, treat us with the respect we deserve.
A view from the municipality balcony.
The view looking onto the other side of the city. No major lockdown for us, even though South Africa has the highest numbers of Covid in Africa.
I’ll save the story of our water meter for another day, another example of total incompetence by #MsunduziMunicipality!
By the time I got home, it was after lunch, it was hot and I was finished. I slept well on Friday night but it took me until Sunday before I felt like I was rested. I wonder if these clueless municipal officials know what stress they subject us to?
For now, I can only hope and pray that my billing will get sorted out and they will leave me in peace!
Rants and Raves of an old hen. 