The City of Johannesburg’s revised draft Rates Policy is now available for additional public comments after being adjusted to incorporate input received on the document at virtual public meetings held in February.
The revised Rates Policy is currently available on the City’s website for public comment alongside the draft 2021/22 Mid-Term Budget and the Integrated Development Plan (IDP).
According to the member of the Mayoral Committee for Finance, councillor Jolidee Matongo, the draft documents are also being presented for input in ongoing virtual and physical public meetings. “The Rates Policy, which is reviewed annually, defines and categorises all properties within the borders of Johannesburg. It also allows the City to generate rates revenue by assigning a tariff to the property values obtained in the General Valuation Roll,” he said.
The newly proposed rates tariffs in the 2021/22 Budget have reduced the property rate from 4 per cent last year to 2 per cent across all categories of properties.
Matongo explained that the proposed significant drop in the property rate was to ease the negative economic impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on both property owners and the City while ensuring sustainable service delivery.
“It is important that the City, within its confines, finds a balance between its financial sustainability to enable service delivery continuation and the affordability of residents amidst the Covid-19 pandemic’s economic impact on all of us, hence residents’ comments on the draft Rates Policy, Budget and the IDP are important,” he said.
The draft Rates Policy is currently available on the City’s website alongside the 2021/22 Mid-Term Budget and IDP. Public comments may be made in writing and submitted before 8 May 2021 by email to ratescomments@joburg.org.za. The new Rates Policy is expected to come into effect on 1 July 2021.
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