Improve service as tariffs go up

Mmegi Editor | Thursday March 23, 2017 16:39

Government has in previous years used this time of the year to increase levies, and payments for services rendered at its offices.

This is also an opportunity for private service providers such as private schools, mobile phone providers, and satellite television providers amongst others, to increase charges for their services, as the country enters a new financial year.

Botswana Power Corporation (BPC) and Water Utilities Corporation (WUC), the parastatals that enjoy the monopoly of providing electricity and water respectively, have announced their intentions to increase tariffs effective April 1.

This is despite constant interruption to these services resulting in great inconvenience for their customers. Service provided by these monopolies has not improved and is nowhere near satisfactory.  Electricity outages are common and some of them unannounced, leading to damage to customers’ electrical appliances, for which no compensation whatsoever is in place.

An apology from an oligarch of a corporation such as BPC is not enough compared to preferred compensation for the inconvenience they cause to their customers. The same applies to WUC, which has brought misery to many lives than any other institution because of its inability to distribute water evenly to the Greater Gaborone area, which accounts for more than 20% of the country’s population.

This is the economic epicentre of the country and it is disappointing to see taps running dry for more than two days and two weeks for some villages.

 We call on the authorities, as a matter of urgency to formulate laws that will protect the consumer amid such inconveniences and humiliation suffered due to inadequate service from the service providers.

Such institutions should monitor the operations of the service providers and have powers to penalise them where they have wronged the consumer.  One example is BOCRA, the communications regulatory authority, which regulates the telecommunications industry and its players such as mobile phone service providers, internet service providers and others.

We urgently need a regulatory authority over water and power services to protect the customer from exploitation. 

Local consumers are less protected as compared to other countries of of middle-income status, and there is no indication that the situation is going to improve anytime soon.

We need independent bodies or institutions to protect the interests of the consumer, who can advocate for fair pricing as well as compensation to consumers who have been disadvantaged by faults and bad practices at the hands of their service providers.  The current state of affairs that puts the customer at a huge disadvantage and favours the big corporates could improve services only if are laws are enforced and enforcement agencies are put in place.

Today’s thought

“State ownership!  It leads only to absurd and monstrous conclusions; state ownership means state monopoly, concentrated in the hands of one party and its adherents, and that state brings only ruin and bankruptcy to all.”

 

– Benito Mussolini