The City of Johannesburg announced further relief rates for distressed residents on Thursday, 30 July.
This means that more than R400 million will be put back into the pockets of Johannesburg property owners during the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown. According to a statement by the City, “The additional relief measures for ratepayers in distress comes after the City granted a reduction in proposed tariffs two weeks ago, which were respectively presented by the Johannesburg MMC for Finance, Jolidee Matongo, on behalf of the municipality’s governing coalition parties – dubbed the government of local unity.”
Matongo explained that the recent relief includes the waiving of penalty interest charges on defaulting municipal accounts for between April and June, together with the relaxation of credit control measures during the lockdown period. The relief is set to be automatically activated for residential properties. Multipurpose residential and businesses need to apply to qualify for the additional rates relief.
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All political parties represented in the council endorsed the recent relief rates with some requests for staff capacity to be ‘beefed up’ in the City’s customer service centres to assist residents with relief applications.
Matongo added that the City has also extended the Expanded Social Package (ESP) benefits period for existing beneficiaries to reduce the number of residents visiting the customer service centres.
“There is no need for ESP beneficiaries and residential property owners to visit the City’s customer centres to qualify for additional relief as it will be automatically applied for their record and accounts respectively. We, however, do appeal to ratepayers to continue for services to keep their accounts up to date, and those in financial distress to approach the City to enter into a payment arrangement to avoid future penalties,” said Matongo.
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