Mayor meets with Westville Ratepayers’ Association as civics threaten rates boycott

The lack of service delivery by the eThekwini Municipality has resulted in a number of ratepayer's associations - among them Westville Ratepayers’ Association - protesting the payment of municipal rates.

This follows a resolution by the Association’s ratepayers who have declared that the City’s 2023/24 budget was unlawful and requested that it reverts to the previous tariff application.

On Thursday August 10, Mayor Mxolisi Kaunda met with the WRA to discuss pertinent issues related to service delivery.

Mr Kaunda said WRA was the first organisation he had met with and that he would be embarking on a city-wide engagement with ratepayers in the next week.

“The main purpose of the meeting is to persuade the ratepayers associations to work together as a collective to build the city. They engaged the municipality and gave us their memorandum to address issues. We will look at their memorandum and respond in detail in 14 days as to how we can assist,” said Mr Kaunda.

He assured residents that the municipality was not dysfunctional but admitted that they did have challenges and that they were still trying to recover from catastrophic incidents the city had experienced in recent months.

The disasters in the city had led to budgets being adjusted to allow for repairs of infrastructure that needs to be replaced urgently. When faced with disaster, the city must act decisively and respond to the needs of the people, he said.

“We are constantly engaging with residents because we recognise the important role ratepayers play in the provision of quality services,” said Mr Kaunda. “We are deeply concerned about the public statements made by WRA mobilising residents to boycott the payment of rates. While we acknowledge that residents get frustrated about the service delivery lapses, we want to caution that the law is clear that non-payment for municipal services is unlawful.”

Recently WRA chairman, Asad Gaffar said the money owed to the municipality would be placed in a trust pending their demands. Which included the municipality convene an urgent meeting with the WRA and affiliates to resolve the dispute; the tariff increase for 2023/24 be set aside until a resolution is reached that favours the city and ratepayers; a system be put in place to avoid any future loss of revenue and a board be put in place to oversee the effective running of the city.

Mr Gaffar said that even though the municipality was illegally applying an electricity tariff, they went ahead without proper consultation or necessary approvals. He questioned whether there were any notices sent out to the public advising of this adjustment.

“Previous requests to engage the municipality have been ignored. This was despite ratepayers advising they will embark on a full utilities boycott as an act of protest,” he said. “Huge amounts of funds are leaving the administration when it should be used for the effective running of the city.”

Mr Kaunda said at the meeting that it was important to indicate that before the council took a decision on the amount of tariffs to be charged, they embark on extensive consultation with all key stakeholders. A similar process was undertaken during April and May this year which resulted in some of the tariff increases being revised, he said.

“Initially the municipality proposed an electricity tariff increase of 21.91% and after listening to residents' complaints we tabled a revised figure of 18.49% which is aligned to NERSA increase,” he said.

“We understand you are frustrated but withholding the payment of rates will only exacerbate the situation,” Mr Kaunda added.

“We appeal to you to reconsider this decision and allow these engagements to continue until we find a lasting solution. We have also started a process of streamlining our revenue collection system so that residents are billed correctly for the services they have used.”

He encouraged residents to continue paying their accounts as non-payment will attract interest. The municipality will continue implementing credit control measures in line with the relevant policies and municipal by-laws where accounts are in arrears. This includes disconnections which attracts a reconnection fee. He said the longer that payments are delayed, the greater the amount to be paid and services will possibly be disrupted in terms of the policy.

In terms of Section 24.1 of the City’s Credit Control Policy, “should any dispute arise with respect to the amount owing, the debtor must continue to make regular payments based on the average charges for the preceding three (3) months prior to the dispute, plus interest where applicable.”

“Local Government must continue functioning for the common good. It cannot be done so efficiently and effectively if every person who has a grievance about the conduct of a public official or a governmental structure were to take the law into their own hands or resort to self-help by withholding payment for services rendered. It’s not for the disgruntled individual to decide what the appropriate relief should be and to combine with others or take it upon themselves to punish the government structure by withholding payment which is due,” said Mr Kaunda.