Zepron Plumbing /Cape Town City Council

Zephron Plumbing arrived at my house this week to "move the council water meter". They had valid City of Cape Town IDs which I checked.

I asked them why the meter had to be moved again* and they said the meter reader "couldn't see it". It was in fact hidden by some minor hedge foliage that could easily be pushed aside and there was an arrow painted on the curb to show where the meter was ??. They said needed to move it 400 mm (poor council meter reader must be very old and decrepit and not able to push some leaves aside??)

*It was moved from inside my property to the verge four years ago to enable the meter reader to access it without having get into the property - (I seem to recall it was also Zephron that did that job as well and they didn't connect it properly underground, leading to a gushing leak which my own plumber had to come and fix urgently - my poor neighbor whose meter was also moved at the time wasn't home for about a week and his "meter moving" job also sprung a leak lumping him with a R 7000 water bill !)

This time the Zephron Plumbing employees proceeded to hack a huge and unnecessary hole in my hedge (that had taken me five years to cultivate) so they could dig undisturbed by the few overhanging leaves that may have touched them while they were working (I took photos of the destruction).

Then they moved the meter 400 mm out into the tarred pavement. It all looked very neat (though totally unnecessary). They then moved my neighbor's meter a total of 150 mm from its previous position where it had been 100% visible and accessible - also completely unnecessary work.

Next morning lo and behold there is water pouring out of the new connection (yet again). It seems that these guys just cannot do a job right the first time.

My issue, apart from their unnecessary destruction of a portion of my hedge and their shoddy workmanship, is why are they doing this work?

May I offer a possible explanation: Having done some online research I have found numerous reports of Zephron Plumbing having done shoddy work for the Cape Town City Council. They are an appointed contractor - money for jam I'd say. Clearly they get paid a handsome sum of money for doing these shoddy and unnecessary jobs and someone on the inside is passing them these jobs by reporting so called "inaccessible meters" (and no doubt getting a kickback for every one reported) . I am a firm supporter of the DA run Cape Town City council, but this and other similar incidents show that corruption/dodgy dealings also exist in what is supposed to be the best run city in the country.

Why am I reporting this on Hello Peter ? Having made calls and had conversations with totally disinterested City officials, I figure the only way for these practices to see the light of day is to report them on a consumer forum such as this. Maybe then the people who matter in the Cape Town City council will take notice and give this shoddy company their marching orders. (I doubt it, but in South Africa we cannot but live in hope).