The City of Johannesburg has reminded residents to continue submitting concerns on the draft 2020/21 rates policy, which will influence the annual adjustment of the policy on property rates, rebates, ratios and related categories.
The reminder comes as the City completed the annual rates policy review public participation virtual meetings, which began on February 8 across the metropolitan.
The Johannesburg MMC for Finance, councillor Jolidee Matongo, explained that the rates policy review process stems from the Municipal Property Rates Act No6 of 2004, which enables the municipality to levy property rates.
“The Act requires the City to adopt a revised rates policy annually and stipulates a public participation process that must be followed to give ratepayers, both residential and business, an opportunity to input the crafting of the policy,” he said.
“This is done to ensure that the process is fair, equitable, and cognisant of our ever-changing economic environment when rates are reviewed. It is therefore important that Johannesburg residents, especially ratepayers, participate in the rates review process and submit comments to influence the final rates policy that is to be approved by Johannesburg’s multi-party Council,” Matongo said.
Matongo pointed out that the review process was “not just a tick-a-box exercise, but the City values every contribution by residents” on the draft rates policy.
Residents, who participated in the scheduled virtual public meetings, had the opportunity to raise questions and concerns during the interaction.
Concerns raised
Some of the concerns already expressed by residents included outstanding property valuation objections and appeals, the City’s budget spending and service delivery.
Some of the service delivery complaints included grass-cutting, poor quality of roads, bad customer service, pensioner rebates and the administration of the expanded social package.
The business forum also saw additional areas of concerns expressed in the virtual meeting. Some of the concerns included high government taxation, public-private partnerships, safety in the inner city, as well as social housing and student accommodation subsidies, which are not aligned to the increasing cost of living.
Matongo, who has been attending the virtual public meetings, emphasised that accountability to residents needed to be prioritised by ensuring that all the concerns raised are included in the draft rates policy report to be presented to the Council for consideration.
“I encourage more Johannesburg residents and businesses to continue sending their concerns and comments on the draft rates policy, which can be accessed on the City’s website, and submit comments before the submission deadline on March 15,” Matongo said.
He added: “All the rates policy review public engagements undertaken in the past month are yet another attempt by the City of Johannesburg to ensure that all our stakeholders are properly engaged and represented.
“This is when the submitted comments and inputs are taken into account for the drafting of the new rates policy.”
Residents can use the following link to access the draft rates policy and other related documents to submit comments before the submission: Submit here or email suggestions and recommendations to ratescomments@joburg.org.za
