Smaller towns in need of big plans

Infrastructure could be rented out and tourism corridors built by linking up

SMALLER towns are finding that efficiency can help them beat the income gap that comes with having a smaller tax base.

Mossel Bay’s deputy mayor, Dirk Kotzé, said smaller towns should create tourism corridors, creating singular products by working together

He also suggested that smaller towns could benefit from revitalising their CBDs as most of them were “dying out” due to the establishment of large malls, usually located along busy roads outside of the towns.

“Incentives should be put in place to attract smaller businesses to the CBDs and also target specific businesses we want to have nearby,” said Kotzé.

He suggested municipalities should lease out properties which were not core to their business.

“There’s a lot of infrastructure that’s a burden on towns, like the caravan parks in Mossel Bay. We’re not in the business of tourism,” said Kotzé.

Eden District Municipality mayor Memory Booysen says smaller municipalities also had to improve their levels of professionalism when it came to collecting revenue.

Overberg District Municipality mayor Andries Franken says instead of slicing the cake into smaller pieces, towns had to seek investment from outside of their boundaries.

Swartland municipality Speaker Michael Rangasamy said when it came to unlocking new streams of revenue, municipalities were often their own worst enemies.

Rangsamy boasted that Swartland had a 97 percent debt collection rate, and its efficient planning approvals had ensured a massive investment from Bokomo came to the town when the company had sought sites in other towns for their new mill.

Drakenstein municipality’s deputy mayor, Gert Combrink, says in many instances smaller municipalities were clueless about what was owed to them.

“It’s scary how much revenue you lose because you don’t know how much people owe you,” said Combrink.

Bitou (Plettenberg Bay) mayor Peter Lobese said townships could also be tapped for revenue despite perceptions that these communities were poor.

“We’re sitting on a gold mine but we’re just letting it sit there,” said Lobese.

He says smaller municipalities had to improve their communications strategies, especially to those in townships who could afford, but still refused, to pay for municipal services.

Last month, the Western Cape legislature’s standing committee on local government was briefed by the auditor-general of South Africa that municipalities in the province owed creditors R1.16 billion as of the end of June this year. This had increased from the R503 million the preceding six months.

Currently the provincial Department of Local Government and the provincial Treasury have intervened in Beaufort West, Cederberg, Kannaland, Matzikama, Oudtshoorn and the Cape Agulhas municipalities with recovery plans in terms of the Municipal Finance Management Act.

quinton.mtyala@inl.co.za

@mtyala