The Dolphin Coast Residents and Ratepayers Association (Docrra) is calling on Province to intervene in its dispute over the new KwaDukuza municipal budget.
Docrra chairman Deon Viljoen wants the KZN Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) department to investigate KDM’s lack of public participation on the budget for 2021/22 which takes effect on July 1.
If Cogta does not intervene, Viljoen is prepared to hire lawyers to get a legally enforced review of the budget.
Viljoen said KDM was legally required to participate with the community they serve as opposed to the “show and tell approach” that was adopted.
“The budget perpetuates the practice over recent years where costly overstated budgeting and consistent under-spending results in sizeable surpluses being made in the actual accounts of KDM – this on the back of a 47% service delivery in the 2019/20 financial year.”
Viljoen also accused KDM officials of not being transparent on the impact the property revaluations would have on rates.
“Consequently, the expected real rates increase could be as high as 10%, which is not in line with national government guidelines and further burdens the ratepayers already struggling with the financial pressures brought on by the coronavirus pandemic,” he said.
KDM spokesperson Sipho Mkhize disputed the lack of public participation. He said a virtual meeting between municipal officials and Docrra had been held on Wednesday, May 26 to address the association’s concerns.
“The draft budget was first published on March 31 and was further communicated at IDP meetings between April and May,” said Mkhize.
Regarding rates increase, Mkhize said the average increase would be about 5%, taking into account the 25% general rates rebate.
“It was also pointed out to Docrra that, in the event that certain property values increased by less than 30%, these property owners will experience a lower percentage increase in property rates and for properties whose values increased by 25% and less, these property owners will experience a decrease in the monthly or annual rates billed,” he said.
Docrra also tabled about 50 questions and concerns relating to KDM’s annual financial statements and annual report with the Municipal Public Accounts Committee (MPAC) – whose role is to exercise oversight over the executive functionaries of council and to ensure good governance in the municipality.
“The concerns raised by the auditor general and independent external audit committee are aligned with those of Docrra. MPAC is where these are raised and discussed. We look forward to the eventual outcome of the MPAC committee and their recommendations to council,” said Docrra committee member and chartered accountant Brian Botes.
“While the 27% drop in service delivery was blamed on the coronavirus outbreak last year and the subsequent lockdown, it should be kept in mind that ‘hard lockdown’ levels 5 and 4 were only for 9 weeks of the total 52 weeks of the financial year (2019-20) so to blame the lockdown for not meeting performance is incorrect. By March 26, 2020, overall performance should already have been around 75% (July 2019-March 2020) which is 9 of 12 months. Level 3 was effective from June 1, 2020 allowing for most activity,” he said.
