Metro hikes mean poor battle to keep lights on
TWO notes in Friday’s Herald merit response: a letter from Mr Valdy Jensen, and the report of an interview with mayor Athol Trollip.
Mr Jensen notes that “we are informed that the ANC-led council incurred R87-million in costs to do the last valuation, while the DA-led council managed to do the job for R12-million”.
Both valuations were put to tender by municipal officials while the ANC was in charge at the metro – the reason for the drop in cost of the most recent valuation was a change in technology.
The earlier valuation relied on visits to all 300 000-plus properties in the metro by qualified valuers, which is time- and manpower-intensive, while the latest valuation was “Google-ified”, and ordinance maps, building plans etc were studied, properties thereby compared with “sold” properties, and valuations created by formulae from this process.
This second process is thus much cheaper, but does not incorporate calculations that would follow from the physical condition of the properties.
Regarding the mayor’s interview, Trollip is reported to have said that “only 10% of the population that live in the city pay rates, and 90% of the people get assistance-to-the-poor support from the municipality”. The report begins with “the haves must pay for the have-nots”.
This explanation is entirely incorrect.
A good set of basic statistics about the metro is contained in the annexures to council’s Built Environment Performance Plan. Here you will find:
The metro population as per the 2011 census was 1 152 115 persons. They lived in 324 292 households, of which 276 850 were formal dwellings.
Of these formal dwellings, 193 190 were ratepayers and 83 660 were indigent and qualified for subsidies.
Including informal households, there were, at June 30 2106, 115 934 indigent households claiming assistance-to-the-poor benefits – this is 37% of all NMB households, not the 90% Trollip suggests.
And this figure does not take into account the large number of commercial and industrial properties that attract rates – they make up 41% of the total valuation roll, thus leaving about 21% of all ratepaying properties receiving subsidies.
Also entirely incorrect is the claim that “the haves must pay for the have-nots”.
Many years ago, our national government decided that core municipal services must be delivered to all households. Failure to collect garbage can lead to cholera; failure to remove sewerage will lead to typhus; failure to deliver water will lead to deaths; and failure to supply electricity to everyone means that some children will never get the class grades they are capable of.
To make this ambitious and entirely correct programme happen, the national government created the Equitable Share formula, whereby every municipality in the country is constitutionally entitled to an annual amount from the national fiscus to ensure basic service delivery to all households.
Last year (ending June 30 2017) the NMB municipality received R798-million from this source. At selling price, the invoice of all assistance-to-the-poor households (115 934 ) was R552-million (annual financial statements), and at cost price R371-million (BEPP). Thus the entire cost of subsidised services was covered, with a large remaining surplus, from this programme, and not from cross-subsidisation from the NMB ratepayer.
Finally, for all of you who voted for change in August last year, mayor Trollip has more change on your way.
For he has just recommended to council this Thursday (September 24) for approval, a multiyear budget strategy (Council Agenda page 144+), that, if implemented, would see your municipal account increase in total by 63% in five years, and in the first year (next year) water and sewerage charges will each rise by 15%, refuse collection by 13.75%, rates by 9%, and electricity by 8.3%. Certainly, change is in the air.
Fortunately, the ANC will have none of this, and, if the “black caucus” stays with us, they have no chance of getting such a budget through.
Oh, and the ANC is not opposing this for opportunistic reasons – please remember, almost all really poor people support the ANC, and you should see the horror the present budget, with its unreasonable increases, has brought to the poor and the working class. They do not write letters to The Herald, but, believe me, they are really battling to keep the electricity on. Rory Riordan, ANC councillor,
Nelson Mandela Bay metro