Pretoria – The Tshwane Money Matters intends to launch an urgent application in the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, to set aside the passing of the valuation roll and the 2020/21 budget by the City of Tshwane.
The approval of the budget – of nearly R40 billion – and valuation roll came into effect on July 1.
The organisation’s chairperson and former DA councillor Lex Middelberg claimed the passing of both matters was illegal and would negatively affect ratepayers.
The applicant, including another organisation called Alas, will push for the matter to be heard on September 15.
In a media statement, Middelberg said the applicants would host a virtual media briefing today to unpack the illegality of the matters and how they would have a negative bearing on residents.
The applicant wanted the 2020-24 general valuation roll and the 2020/21 metro budget to be declared void and set aside on grounds of “illegality and unconstitutionality”.
Middelberg said: “The application will have far-reaching consequences for all ratepayers and the City.”
The City’s budget saw some tariff increases for water services, refuse removal and electricity.
The operating expenditure amounted to R37.3bn while the capital budget amounted to R3.9bn for 2020/21.
Stakeholders were afforded a chance to make inputs into the draft budget, which was published for a 30-day public consultation on the municipal website.
At the time, head administrator Mpho Nawa asked residents to share views on the policy review by submitting comments or objections to the City’s valuation roll for the period July 1, 2020 to June 30, 2024.
Participants were advised that objections must be in relation to a specific individual property and not against the valuation roll as such.
The process for adjusting the municipal valuation roll in terms of Section 23(3) of the Local Government Municipal Property Rates Act was also put into effect on July 1.
Tshwane Money Matters is a voluntary association of ratepayers in the city who share skills and time to “do what no political party does or have ever done for us to do basic oversight over how we are taxed and how public funds are spent”.
Its objective, the organisation said, was to hold government to account, to save everyone from the “predatory rates and taxes imposed on us without ever an affordability study being done on you and us who are called upon to pay those rates and taxes, by optimising city government functions and service delivery”.
It is made up of volunteers who donate their time, skills and money.
Pretoria News