The Westonaria Local Municipality Chief Financial Officer Vincent Mkhefa has fired back at residents who are worried that new property rates introduced by the municipality is unaffordable.
According to Mkhefa, the only thing that will be affected for residents will be their DSTV and clothing accounts.
Westonaria residents were enraged by the municipality’s announcement that property rates would increase by a whopping 80 percent.
According to Mkhefa, the municipality has since revised the increase for property rates to 40 percent as opposed to the initial 80 percent.
He says that this is influenced by the resources needed to improve on service delivery.
According to him, residents will have no choice but to prioritise their spending patterns to ensure that they pay for critical services provided by the municipality.
“Some people might not know this but we are expected to provide over 15 services to the community of Westonaria and its surrounds while operating at a deficit and that is not feasible.
“The truth of the matter is that we have been charging extremely low rates for services we render.
“However, this has come back to haunt us and we cannot afford to continue with tariffs which are not reflective of costs.
“Owing to this, we have decided to implement a strategy where the size of one’s property and the value thereof will influence the rates that they will pay,” says Mkhefa who adds that the increase will be for a period of two years until the municipality recovers from its financial woes.
On the issue of affordability, Mkhefa says that they expect services to cost between R300 for small households up to R3 000 for effluent consumers.
According to him, to achieve its mandate the municipality will also embark on aggressive and robust debt collections which will see them collecting each and every cent owed by residents, business owners and other institutions.
He adds that the municipality will not hesitate to auction off moveable property and disconnect water and electricity supply of consumers who fail to pay their municipali accounts in time.
Mkhefa remains adamant that the so-called rich people residing in the suburbs should foot the bills for residents of Westonaria’s many informal settlements.
The 500% increase at management level staff,and the inability to collect 180 million rand outstanding accounts. Get off the gravy train,mr mkefa,ndlovo,mashaba and many others. What will you do when the dog dies that you ticks are feeding from?be carefull there is still a lot of dogs that can bite,Mkefa.
Ek is baie ongelukkig oor hierdie musipaliteit se doen en late.My erfbelasting en goed was altyd R700+ en nou is dit sommer verhoog na R1732.00 dit is verregaande.Hoe mut mens kop bo water hou as jy pensioenaris is!!!!!!