Limberg should tap into the truth
COUNCILLOR Xanthea Limberg should have come clean and responded truthfully in “Setting the record straight” to my letter “Skewing the facts” of August 7.
Instead, she continues to try to pull the wool over our eyes.
Instead of using the opportunity to substantiate her statement “…ultimately reflected in lower tariffs for 2018/2019” in her article “Skew idea of the budget” of August 3, she continues to twist the truth.
To prove that her statement is baseless, let us look at how an annual increase of an item is calculated – by simply subtracting the price of the item a year ago from its current price. Let us apply this to the water tariff. On July 1 last year, the tariff per kilolitre for the first 6kl was R4 excluding VAT. The amount increased to R28.90 on July 1 this year.
The difference between the two amounts is R24.90. The annual percentage increase is therefore 623% (= R24.90/R4 x 100).
This indisputably refutes councillor Limberg’s claim of an increase of 10.1%.
An annual bill for 6kl of water a month would have been R48 using last year’s water tariffs. A year later the bill would jump to R346.80. This implies that the increased annual water bill would have been sufficient to cover the total water bill at the old water tariff for more than six years.
Stated differently, residents will, after every 50 days, have to pay the equivalent of the old annual water bill at the increased water tariffs.
Would residents have difficulty paying their bills if the tariff increased by a mere 10.1%? The above explains why residents are having a tough time absorbing the massive sixfold increase in their monthly budget.
Councillor Limberg also indicates that more than 40% of households do not pay for water, leaving approximately 60% of residents paying for their water.
If all water-paying residents consumed 6kl a month then the council would have collected R15 million a month at the old water tariff. With the increased water tariffs the total amount collected would be almost R115m. That is R100m more a month.
Finally, does councillor Limberg honestly believe she can sugar-coat the massive increase in water tariffs with her inaccurate statements? And that the continual spewing of inaccuracies will eventually become fact?
ADIEL ISMAIL Mount View