If the municipality were a business...

Our inept municipality recently proposed that water, sanitation and refuse tariffs be increased by 6.5% to compensate for its ballooning wage bill.

It would be remiss of the powers that be not to realise that they are, in fact, employees of the residents of the metro.

This being the case, ratepaying citizens should decide whether this increase is warranted.

It would be interesting to hear from any reasonable, logically thinking individual the reason for having 120 councillors in chambers?

This is an enormously superfluous number of individuals, most of whom in my view are merely there for the exorbitant month-end gratification.

As a general comparison, these cities have the following: Rome — a mayor and48 councillors; Madrid — a mayor and 30 councillors; Auckland — a mayor and 19 councillors; Windhoek — a mayor and 15 councillors.

There must be many more major cities worldwide that also believe bigger is not necessarily better.

Were we to follow a similar pattern, the salary bill would be significantly reduced.

We are now expected to pay for increases on services that aren’t being delivered.

Then there is the audacity to charge availability fees on services that cannot be supplied on a regular basis.

Were this municipality a private enterprise, things would be entirely different.

We, the ratepayers, as employers, would call for disciplinary action; most of the 120 councillors would be accused of failing to perform their designated duties and would have their employment terminated.

Sir Winston Churchill once said: “Politics is not a game. It is an earnest business.”

The sooner the games come to an abrupt end, the better for all. Sherwin Schreiber, Bluewater Bay