Mrs Sharon Levin said the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality (EMM) has been charging her a “refuse: area cleansing levy” in both her residence and business properties.
“I have been charged R5,70 refuse: area cleansing levy. I phoned Ekurhuleni and was told this is a new charge from July 1, 2013 to be paid for street cleaners. I have been charged on my house account as well as on my business account for two months. However, I have not seen one cleaner or sweeper in the area. This is blatant government thievery,” she said.
An enquiry was sent to EMM’s spokesperson, Mr Samuel Modiba, on Thursday, August 22 with a request of response on Friday 23. At the time of going to print, no comment was received.
Ward 20 councillor, Clr Michele Clarke, said this charge is another way of the government to get money from tax payers.
“This has been charged on each and every rates account. I can’t agree more with you that service delivery is on such a decline that it has become non-existent, while government continues to milk rate payers with excessive increases,” said Clr Clarke.
She added that this was one of the reasons the DA in Ekurhuleni did not vote for the metro’s budget.
“The DA voted against the budget due to many issues, which we as a party did not agree upon, including this tariff,” she said.
