Concerns regarding property evaluation and implementation of new rates by the Westonaria Local Municipality continue to be a headache for the local AfriForum branch.
According to the chairperson of the forum Mike van Deventer, he and other members of the forum find it alarming that properties that are of the same sizes differ in value as well as the fact that the rates of the same properties have increased to between 41,9 per cent to 340 per cent.
This is more than the tariff increase of 40 per cent implemented by the Westonaria Local Municipality as of 1 July this year.
“We feel that the municipality is using residents as some sort of cash cow. aThat is why we as AfriForum took it upon ourselves to compare two properties in Venterspost that are the same in size. We have found that although these properties are pretty much the same, they now differ in value,” says Van Deventer.
He continues, “Firstly, Venterspost is a small community where no property is worth more than R987 000 as the suburb is in a dolomite area.
“However, despite this, the municipality put up some property rates to well over that benchmark and we wonder how they got to those figures,” says Van Deventer. He adds that they have established that once the municipality has evaluated one’s property, they bill residents for services on absurd property values.
“A home owner was billed R435,91 per month for a vacant stand with only a pool on it, irregardless of the fact that the services are supplied from the main dwelling.
“The statement showed that they charged the resident for electricity, water and refuse removal for a practically empty stand,” says Van Deventer.
According to him, prior to the inception of the new tariff rates, the resident would pay R98,70 as opposed to the R435,91 he is currently paying.
The herald contacted Westonaria Local Municipality chief financial officer Vincent Mkhefa who says he will look into these issues and revert back with detailed comment.
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