Relief from availability available now
A hefty chunk of Knysna residents breathed a sigh of relief with the local government’s announcement on Tuesday that all fire victims will be exempt from paying so-called punitive availability fees for vacant stands for the period 1 July 2017 to 30 June 2018.
Among the recommendations on the agenda by acting municipal manager Marlene Boyce at a special council meeting were that the “charging of vacant stand tariffs on all properties that were totally destroyed by the fire be waived for the 2017/2018 financial year”.
The announcement follows waves of dissent by fire victims displeased with the concession made by the city council under the auspices of previous mayor Eleonore Bouw-Spies after the Knysna wildfires last year: that fire victims would be exempt from paying rates and taxes. To the surprise of many fire victims they were however made responsible for paying availability fees at the higher rate for vacant erven.
‘They took the whole hand’
“It was an utterly hollow concession,” said Knysna lawyer Coenraad de Beer who lost his property in Paradise. “They basically gave us a pinkie and took the whole hand. So excellent. We don’t have to pay rates, thank you so much,” he expressed with obvious irony. “But we were forced to pay availability fees which in many cases were equal or even higher.”
De Beer added that it is commendable that new mayor Mark Willemse put paid to the frustration and confusion after such a short time in office. “It took him all of a few weeks to sort it out properly,” he said, “good for him.”
The intention of council has been to offer relief to the fire victims caught up in an unprecedented situation and not to penalise them, the agenda stated, “Even though the council waived the rates and correctly applied the tariff on service charges. The effect of applying the vacant stand tariff on the properties that were destroyed by fire has undone the rates waiver and caused anger and animosity from the people who were affected.”
A puzzle for many
For many, the very notion of availability remains a puzzle because it forces owners of vacant lots to pay the municipality for available services that they are not in effect making use of (see adjacent box). The purpose is apparently to encourage owners of empty plots to build on their land and curb renegade urban sprawl.
But even if this deduction can be justified as an incentive for people to build or occupy their empty land, many feel this should not be applicable to fire victims who never chose to own an empty plot of land in the first place.
As another victim, Gordon Rattay, whose family home burned down in the fire explained: “I can see their point of charging availability as incentive to encourage landowners to develop their properties and everything, but I never volunteered to be in this position, now did I?
“We’ve been fighting for this for over a year, thank you Mark Willemse!” exclaimed Siena van Schoor of the Knysna Ratepayer’s Association and OneKnysna.