DURBAN - THE Msunduzi Municipality has been accused of treating its ratepayers with disdain by “ignoring” their objections to the proposed tariff increases.
The councillors recently held a workshop to discuss, among many other issues, the tariff increases.
An opposition councillor said the manner in which the objections were treated was an insult to ratepayers.
The municipality has received close to 4 000 written objections to the proposed increases. It wants to increase its tariffs by 5.35%; water and electricity are expected to increase by more as those tariffs are determined by outside factors. “The manner in which the objections were treated was an insult. We received thousands of objections and we only spent a few minutes going through them, we did not take them seriously …” said the councillor.
He said the municipality had received more than 3 800 objections before the process was closed.
“These are paying customers, people who have been sustaining this municipality. I am very disappointed with how their objections were treated,” he said.
Ratepayers detailed numerous reasons for the objections, including that the Covid-19 pandemic had led to unemployment challenges, the current dire economic situation and a lack of service delivery by the municipality.
They also objected on the basis that theft of services like water and electricity was out of control.
They demanded that the city raise funds from other departments; bill consumers who were currently not being billed and raise money from traffic fines and parking meters.
ACDP councillor Rienus Niemand said they were concerned about the fairness of the increases. He confirmed that the objections were not fully considered during the workshop.
“For ratepayers, beyond the issue of paying, is the issue of what are you paying for, service delivery has been on the decline in this municipality.
“From the recent administrator’s report, it is quite clear that theft in this municipality is out of control…”
DA councillor Sibongiseni Majola said the municipality had a responsibility
to plan accordingly to protect its ratepayers and residents from steep increases in times of crises.
Anthony Waldhausen of the Msunduzi Association of Residents, Ratepayers and Civics said if it was true that the council took a few minutes to go through thousands of objections it was an indication of how inconsiderate it was. He said they objected to the hikes and had called for a 0% increase.
Msunduzi mayor Mzimkhulu Thebolla disputed that they had received many objections, saying the city had more than a million residents, and members of the public they had engaged with had welcomed the increases as the city had kept them reasonable.
THE MERCURY