Joburg mom faces bankruptcy over R2.9m water bill

Jenny-Lee Bot rents out a house in Dainfern, Johannesburg. The income from the property is needed to support her family. In 2023, she got the shock of her life when she received her utility bill: water charges had increased from R1,334 due end of July to R454,192 due end of August.

This astronomical charge was based on a recorded consumption of nearly 6,000 kilolitres, a volume a professional plumber notes is “nearly impossible” for a residential unit in a single month. The huge charges continued for months. Bot’s water bill now exceeds R2.9-million.

In Gauteng, water consumption averages 279 litres per person per day. For a family of four, this is about 34kl per month.

Although a minor repair to a small pipe connector leak was carried out in February 2024, the extreme readings persisted, fluctuating between 1,420kl and 5,965kl, averaging a quarter-of-a-million rand monthly.

Then, the readings returned to normal without any major intervention. From June 2024 onward, consumption dropped to normal usage: between 10kl and 35kl per month.

The City of Johannesburg has maintained that the high consumption was due to an “internal leak,” placing the financial burden squarely on Bot. Johannesburg Water, in a message to GroundUp, also blamed the problem on Bot.

Read: Gauteng community’s taps run dry as municipality battles R1.4bn water debt

However, independent investigations contradict this.

“On a 1 000 square metre stand, the volume of water the bill shows is 5.965m litres in one month. But you would see signs, swamp, sink holes, wet walls, mud patches and running water – none of which I can find. So the 12 months of high water bills make no sense,” said Simon Bird from SAB Plumbing.

An engineer consulted by Bot found that this was “clearly a case of either water meter failure, incorrect reading of the water meter and/or … miscalculation by the administrator of the water bill invoices”.

In May 2024, Alpha Plumbing conducted a high-pressure gas test, certifying the “absolute absence of any active leaks” on the property.

Yet the City insists on a 50% upfront payment before engaging in any formal dispute resolution.

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Johannesburg Water told us that the “request to adjust account due to high consumption” had not been processed, as “there was [an] internal leak which was owner’s responsibility”. The company said there was “high consumption” on the property between 21 March 2023 and 16 April 2024, and this had not been fixed by a Johannesburg Water technical team, so the account could not be adjusted. But this claim is inconsistent with the expert reports as well as with the fact that Bot’s bill only started ballooning several months later.

Sections of two municipal bills that Bot’s rental business has received: over R477 000 due end of August 2023 and over R2.9m due end of April. Image: GroundUp

Faced with a bill she cannot pay, Bot risks going bankrupt.

“I lose sleep over this matter, and it is insane that such a huge mistake can put me in liquidation if I cannot find a remedy,” Bot told GroundUp.

Bot says she has been pushed from “pillar to post” these past two years. She has made dozens of visits to Johannesburg Water, had meetings with lawyers, councillors and even MPs, and written to Johannesburg’s Ombudsman.

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At one point, she even paid the City for a meter test. But she says she the test never actually took place.

Bot also alleges corruption – she says that during her desperate search for a solution, Johannesburg Water officials told her it would be “very expensive,” but they could make the bill “go away”.

Financial toll

The repeated service disconnections caused by the dispute led to her tenants cancelling their lease.

This loss of income resulted in a final demand from her bank and a lawyer’s letter, threatening her with liquidation.

In 2024, Bot obtained a court interdict to keep the lights and water on. But, the City subcontracts disconnections, and the order has not been honoured, according to Bot, and disconnections continue.

Read:
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She cannot afford to spend much on lawyers.

The utility company has a history of faulty meter readings, particularly following the 2008 Project Phakama centralisation. Errors have been the result of a lack of physical readings, causing many households to be billed for months or even years based on arbitrary estimates.

“I honestly feel like I’m in a nightmare,” said Bot. “It’s too much stress.”

© 2026 GroundUp. This article was first published here.

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