The Herald has received the following statement, quoted verbatim, from the office of the Executive Mayor, Mzi Khumalo, about the tariff increases for the Rand West City Local Municipality and the consolidation of the billing cycle. The statement was released on 11 October 2016 at 2pm.
“In terms of Section 16 of the Municipal Financial Management Act (MFMA), a municipal council must approve the annual budget before the start of the financial year, and should a municipal council fail to do so, Section 26 of the MFMA prescribes that the Provincial Executive must intervene.
“The outgone Council of Randfontein Local Municipality fully complied with this prescript when it successfully held a council meeting on the 29th of June 2016 to amongst important discussion consider the following items:
• Annual budget;
• IDP;
• Tariff increases – basic sewerage 6 percent, refuse and sanitation 6.6 percent, water provision 12.9 percent; electricity tariff 9.4 percent; property rates 6 percent; basic charge on electricity infrastructure for non-indigent prepaid users R50 and so on.
“The above annual budget and tariff increases were subsequently adopted by Rand West City Local Municipality new council on the 31st of August 2016.
“Given that the timing of 2016 elections campaign coincided with the municipal budget consultations, the leadership of both the former Randfontein and Westonaria local municipalities presented a budget which will ensure financial sustainability and considers the plight of the identified indigent beneficiaries.
“All the considerations as indicated above were taken within the framework of the 2015 Medium Term Budget Policy Statement which notes the severity of the global economic outlook and its impact to emerging countries.It is within this spirit of thinking that the Council had to consider some adjustment on their tariff structure. The former Randfontein Local Municipality has been billing a month in arrears.
“This affected its cash flow and limits the municipality from collecting rates within the current billing cycle. The billing for the month of September 2016 is for the consumption of services for the month of July/August 2016. Therefore, the correction was necessary and it will enable consumers to pay within the current billing cycle. As a result, consumers from Randfontein are advised that billing for month of October 2016 will contain consumption for August to October 2016.
“In case consumers are unable to pay their accounts out rightly, you are allowed to make payment arrangement on the outstanding fees until the 30th of June 2017.
As for the R50 basic charge on electricity infrastructure, NERSA tariff structure considers the fee. It’s important to take note that the former Randfontein Local Municipality had applied to NERSA with only R131.00 of basic electricity infrastructure charge for conventional users, but in their reply, NERSA had included R50 charge on electricity infrastructure charge for all non-indigent prepaid users.
“The electricity basic charge on infrastructure is a common phenomenon. All municipalities are subjected to that fee and we duly complied. The compliance of the NERSA electricity charge on infrastructure was duly confirmed by Council of the Rand West City Local Municipality.
It is within the above elucidated context that the Council decisions were considered. and are engaged with community members.
“The Executive Mayor importantly invites the members of the public to a series of IDP meetings where the developments on municipal matters are addressed. The schedule for IDP meetings can be obtained from the Office of the Council Speaker, Rand West City Local Municipality.”
• Details: For more media enquiries on the statement, please liaise with Tshidiso Tlharipe, spokesperson for the Executive Mayor on 083 295 7419 or 011 411 0084.
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