Thumbs up for Ndlambe imbizos
Concern over increasing rates
Constructive and informative was the general consensus from participants in two imbizos hosted by Ndlambe Municipality this week.
The engagements follow the tabling of the draft Integrated Development Plan (IDP) review for 2024/25 at the March 28 full council meeting.
The Port Alfred and Kenton meetings were the third and fourth, respectively, of 17 wardbased engagements scheduled from April 23 to May 20.
On Monday morning, a small gathering was opened by mayor Khululwa Ncamiso.
Port Alfred Ratepayers and Residents Association (Parra) chairperson Lindsay LuppnowBurrow expressed concern that only three members of the Ward 10 committee were present to represent and report back to their organisations, namely, the Royal Alfred Marina (Stuart Boucher), Parra and the Ndlambe Ratepayers Forum (Dawie van Wyk).
Responding, Ward 10 councillor Nadine Haynes said the invitation had gone out to all committee members, and that the poor attendance was probably due to negative experiences with imbizos in previous years.
“It’s unfortunate because the mayor and officials have gone out of their way to make this year’s imbizos relevant and engaging,” Haynes said.
Ndlambe Municipality’s new IDP manager, Rene Uren, was introduced. She has relocated from Gqeberha and brings considerable experience in catalysing development.
The municipality’s IDP is an important policy document that guides its priorities – and hence its budgeting and spending.
Every IDP is designed for a five-year period, matching the term of the councillors who approve it and are responsible for making sure it happens. It is reviewed every year.
CFO Michael Klaas said that in previous years, the finance department was able to finetune the budget after tabling it.
“We’re not able to follow that strategy this year because National Treasury has ruled that all municipalities must conduct a cost analysis before determining tariffs,” Klaas said.
The finance department’s Diane May further explained that the department of cooperative governance’s review of the Municipal Property Rates Act meant that instead of a rebate structure, new categories of property had been implemented: Residential Industrial
Business and commercial Mining
Public service purpose Public service infrastructure Public service organisation Multipurpose
Vacant land
Enter Hendrik Barnard, MD of specialists Elexpert. His job is to analyse the cost of supplying services (energy, water, sanitation and sewage, solid waste) and use that information to rationalise the tariffs Ndlambe Municipality charges.
Barnard highlighted the changing environment in which the municipality was providing services. “The fact that there is an increasing move to go off the grid has an impact on the water and energy service provision models,” he said.
In addition, because Ndlambe Municipality included several small towns and villages, rather than a single main centre, it was more expensive to provide services.
“The municipality has gone a long way towards providing good services. The challenge is that for most services provided, the current tariffs don’t cover the cost,” he said.
For example, he said the Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA) stated rates must make a fair contribution to the overhead cost of providing services.
Rather than drastically increasing unit charges to pay for overheads, Barnard has proposed increasing availability charges for water and energy.
For water, the proposal is the fixed (availability) rate increases by 5% per year for the next five years. In future, he proposes differentiated fixed charges based on supply pipe sizes.
For waste, his proposal is to apply differentiated rates plus increases to categories as set out in the valuation roll. The proposed rates increases as per the 2024/25 IDP review are:
Electricity 16.5% (depending on your average consumption); sewerage 11.2%; water 11.2%; refuse 11.2%.
Barnard explained the relationship between Eskom’s pricing according to demand.
“The message is we have to manage demand,” he said. “We have to get the message through that capacity is costly.” He then conducted a “live performance”, connecting various appliances (stove, kettle, radio, geyser) to an energy meter to show it is possible to bring your household electricity costs down by signing up for a limited capacity service – but still do the things you need to.
Resident Jo Rice, responding to the proposed increases, said: “These increases will affect middle class rate-paying people and they come as a result of poor planning.
“I support the practice of indigent subsidies – but this is punishing those whose rates support the municipality.”
That theme was echoed by the Kenton-on-Sea ratepaying community.
Chairperson of the Kenton/ Boesmans Chamber of Business and Tourism Justin Wilmot appealed to officials “not to kill the goose that lays the golden egg. Large increases won’t affect high earners,” he said. “But will make it very difficult for middleincome people to live here.”
Today, imbizos are scheduled for Alexandria (10am in council chambers there, Ward 2) and Port Alfred (3pm, Ingubo community centre, Ward 7). For updated schedules, visit TOTT’s Facebook page.