RESIDENTS of the Kouga will have to pay a so-called fire levy as from
July next year. That is if the Kouga local municipality Council vote in favour
of a recommendation put forward by the Mayoral Committee. The purpose of the
levy will be to subsidize fire services within the Kouga. The proposal was
adopted by Mayor Booi Koerat and his mayoral committee in September and it will
be tabled at the next council meeting.
The exact amount to be paid still needs to be determined, but if
adopted in its current form, residents of Jeffreys Bay, Humansdorp, St.Francis
Bay and Hankey will pay double the amount that residents of Thornhill,
Patensie, Loerie and Oyster Bay will pay. Indigent consumers will be exempted.
Stakeholders however, question the municipality’s capability to
properly use the funds collected for special subsidies for the intended
purpose.
St. Francis Bay DA Councilor Ben Rheeder allege that of the three
levies for special services that residents of the Kouga currently pay, two are
not handled as prescribed in the Municipal Systems Act and the Municipal
Property Rates Act.
Rheeder, in a motion put forward in the council meeting on Friday,
December 9, said that the St Francis Bay Sewerage Levy and the Environmental
levy are not properly ring-fenced as required by legislation and the funds
collected are not used for the purpose the levies were created for. He said
“The prescribed legislation was ignored for the past four financial
years.”
Rheeder insisted that the Municipal Manager and the Chief Financial
Officer provide the next Finance Committee and Council with a plan to pay
the last four years collected sewerage levy funds into the correct account and
that these funds be used for extending the St Francis Bay waterborne
sewer system.
A Fire levy! What a clever solution to the Kouga Municipality's financial difficulties. It must have taken hours to dream that one up. If you can't make enough money charging your clients for the services you are contracted to provide, charge them TWICE. I wonder why those financial geniuses on Wall Street never thought of that. Probably because its illegal, immoral and impossible (in a free and fair country) - but don't let that stop you.
ReplyDeleteWe pay our rates to the municipality so that we can get basic services like water supply, sewage, roads, electricity and emergency services. Then we get billed for a sewage levy, and an environmental levy, and now an emergency services levy. We pay rates so that we can have decent roads to drive on. We also pay for a vehicle licence, a drivers licence, a fuel levy, toll roads, traffic fines and income tax, all so that we can have decent roads to drive on. And what do we get? Roads that are so badly maintained you can hardly drive on them.
But why stop at just a sewage levy, and a fire levy, and an environmental levy? If you can charge for the same thing over and over again, why not have an Air levy, to pay for the air you breathe. Heaven knows you can't do without it. What about an Earth levy? If you insist on walking around on the ground in Kouga, you must pay for that pleasure. If you don't like it, float off. Collecting rates and taxes is really important, and there doesn't seem to be enough money to do that right. Perhaps a Rates Levy would be a good idea, to pay for the collection of rates and all the other levies. There is no end to the extra money you could collect, if you have no moral qualms about charging for the same thing twice.
Trevor Watkins
If Kouga wanted to solve its financial woes it would stop trying to create new charges and tightening of collections using obscure and irrational thuggery and actually rectify the inherent problems on the collection side. The current approach of the municipality seems to be to ignore its legitimate powers (which were pronounced upon recently - in a statement of shameless selfpromotion - and are covered in well written bit in the Jbayra blog) and press the use of illegitimate means to effect its will, with disasterous effect:
ReplyDeleteLast week the SCA had to weigh in on Kouga's ill-fated liquor laws blotching - despite the clear case law on the subject - largely in the form of picking on certain establishments and incurring horrendous court costs. Further (because it is a matter of public record I don't see any harm in reporting but not commenting extensively) a general recalcitrance saw the municipality on the wrong side of a High Court rule nisi and interim interdict and mandamus order from (in the words one of their rent-a-cops) an obnoxious kid which had to be followed up by a further application for enforcement. Both of these incidents are in addition to the reported on vehicle attachment issue and the municipality seeking to evict certain poor people. It also is in addition to the approximately 1.2 mil legal fees incurred in blundering the Fred Dennis saga.
Either Kouga is taking very bad legal advice (or ignoring good advice) which translates into bad financial planning or the idea of the rule of law has long passed. Of course if policy decisions are made in an improper form a culture of secrecy is probably the real fear. Speaking of a culture of secrecy is the fact that Clr Stuurman (who took great offence to my describing him "as the corrupt one") has great sway on administration matters. This should come as no surprise, but whether the officials will actually admit as to who is pulling which strings is a different story, precisely because of a culture of secrecy.
Regardless whose interests are pulling the strings the municipality is imposing the costs incurred by this pillaging on the ratespayers and residents - and the real tragedy is that it is the poor who pay the most dearly. Surely the fire service burden would be less if the need for parafin burning in informal settlements was removed - something within the municipalities powers actually.
Instead what should be looked at is a requirement that all building plans for new expansions or developments will only be granted on the depositing of security for rates estimated to arise for 24 months after the finalization of construction. In addition to being a form of prepayment of rates (which should go into serving infrastructure for the area) it prevents the glut of debt wreckless speculative developers bring and aides in deflating the property bubble (if you have to prepay rates on a devlopment you'll underplay the value of developments rather than inflate the prices artificially).
Paul
In a more sardonic vain to my previous general statement:
ReplyDeleteIf Kouga is going to raise levies to pay for things that are costing them money they should probably run an Incompetence Levy, a Legal Fees Levy and a Consumer Protection Act Levy - the last of which you can escape by waiving all rights.