Render unto Caesar — or send him a snippy e-mail

There is an e-mail that arrives in my inbox at the beginning of every month, which I dread opening. And when I do, I take a quick a look, close it and take a walk away from my desk either in relief or in a bid to get my blood pressure to return to normal.

It’s the Johannesburg city council account.

And just when I have resolved an issue and the account is coming in each month in line with my expectations, the amount owing inexplicably escalates.

What ensues is countless e-mails to resolve the bill and anxiety over the risk of having services terminated if the inflated amount is not paid at month-end. I am not alone. There are endless complaints on social media.

But it is more than the inconvenience and frustration council customers regularly experience when faced with incorrect accounts — there is an economic impact.

Spending is a key driver of economic growth, accounting for a substantial portion of GDP. It’s not news that consumers increasingly are squeezed, and with that has come a slowdown in economic growth.

This week finance minister Tito Mboweni in the medium-term budget revised down the country’s growth forecast for 2018. The expectation is now for 0.7% growth this year, from an earlier forecast of 1.5%. That isn’t growth, no matter how you view it.

In order to kick-start a recovery, investors and consumers need confidence, which to a large extent is based on predictability. Such as predictable prices.

In hard times, budgeting has become even more critical. As Mboweni put it this week, the medium-term budget “is designed to outline how we spend scarce resources”. The same applies to households that have to assess how much they can save after buying essentials.

When an indispensable service cannot be budgeted for because its cost varies so widely, money is not invested or spent on goods and services. Instead, wary consumers hang back from making spending and investment decisions, which keeps growth in check.

And it doesn’t help that we know administered prices will keep rising. Eskom wants a tariff increase well above inflation. Rand Water will no doubt follow suit, and for other services councils are sure to want beyond inflation-rate hikes.

Mboweni said in a tweet on tax: “Render unto Caesar what is due to Caesar.” In response, @Mighty28220123 said: “And in exchange for that Caesar must render unto the taxpayers/citizens services worth the value of what they rendered to him.” Quite.

Regular power and water outages and disruptions to refuse removal mean we are not getting reliable services we pay for.

Mboweni acknowledges this, saying: “All South Africans share the pain of poorly performing municipalities: potholes, broken street lights, roads that flood when it rains, and challenges with electricity.”

A well-functioning city should be like a background hum that goes unnoticed. Instead, it is a constant irritation.

Wary consumers hang back from making spending and investment decisions