DURBAN - THE DA in KwaZulu-Natal has called on the provincial government to step in and assist municipalities that might lose revenue because businesses in their districts were destroyed during the riots.
The party wants municipalities to grant rate holidays to affected businesses and wants the provincial government to step in and assist the municipalities if they lose revenue because of those rate holidays.
It said municipalities should grant rates holidays to ensure that businesses in their areas survive.
“We want a full outline plan that businesses whose income-generating mechanisms are in ruins, will not be forced to pay rates and municipal tariffs,” said the party’s spokesperson on Co-operative Governance and Traditional affairs Chris Pappas.
Of particular concern to the DA, said Pappas, are family-owned businesses, informal traders and SMMEs that have been very hard hit.
“The reality is that many will not be able to pay rates or municipal tariffs this month and for many months to come as they try to recover from the destruction,” he said.
It is for this reason that the DA is calling on the provincial government to engage municipalities about rates holidays for affected businesses.
As for losses of income to municipalities, he said the DA has written to the province’s Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs and the Provincial Treasury to request that funds are made available to assist those municipalities where such rate deferrals are to be implemented in the form of a conditional grant or interest-free loan.
“Our economy was already on its knees following the dismal Covid-19 response. What is now urgently needed is to ensure that what is left of small town economies is saved to protect against any further decline, loss and suffering. There can be no other option,” he said.
THE MERCURY