DURBAN - THE Pietermaritzburg and Midlands Chamber of Business (PCB) has asked local businesses to lodge disputes with Msunduzi Municipality over high rates bills.
The chamber’s chief executive Melanie Veness said the move was not a declaration of hostilities, but an act of desperation by business that can simply not afford the tariff increases passed by the full council last week.
She said this yesterday, as the PCB gets ready to submit its objection to national Treasury on the rates hike approved by the Msunduzi council.
The increases included 5.3% for rates and refuse collection, and 7% for water.
The PCB said it took no issue with the electricity tariff increase because this is controlled by the National
Energy Regulator of SA (Nersa).
The chamber argued that the contention was that the money billed for water does not even go to servicing the water supply infrastructure, and refuse collection was known to be problematic for the municipality.
“Businesses are struggling as it is, and are still recovering from the effects of the Covid-19 lockdown – and now they have to fork out more on rates. There is simply no justification for the municipality to raise business tariffs, given the conditions under which businesses are operating,” said Veness.
Part of their frustrations, she added, was that businesses had attended meetings with the municipality hoping that their pleas would be heard. “We have a municipality that has been under administration twice within ten years and there is an apparent lack of appreciation of what being under administration does for businesses.”
Aside from sending their objections to Treasury, the PCB will also petition the Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) committee and advise businesses to lodge individual objections when the hikes are imposed.
While not aware whether other chambers had ever explored the avenue of reporting their municipalities to Treasury before, the PCB believed that it is acting in the best interests of business in the KZN capital.
Municipality spokesperson Thobeka Mafumbatha said while they noted the chamber’s stance, they had sought comment from all affected parties during the budget formulation process, as prescribed by the legislation guiding the budgeting process. “As council has passed this budget, the municipality is ready to implement the rates increases,” said Mafumbatha. The increases are set for July.
THE MERCURY