Call for Howick rates boycott is no surprise

I READ the article (The Mercury, May 6) with a sense of disbelief. Mr Thando Mgaga said that “although the municipality was committed to repairing the roads, they were hamstrung by financial constraints”.

My wife purchased a property in Howick and we took occupation on May 30, 2019.

From that day on, I wrote to the uMngeni Municipality every month asking for a rates assessment. In May, 2020 I received a reply which stated, “I have forwarded your complaint to my bosses and await their reply”.

In June I received a copy of an email signed by the rates officer which read, inter alia, “Kindly add on the next batch”.

This reflected a great sense of urgency! I continued to write to the municipality every month without receiving the courtesy of a reply and, in desperation, I wrote to my DA councillor, Craig Millar, in August 2020, and asked for his assistance.

On September 8 I received a letter from the rates officer advising me that my account had been created with a debit balance of R45 705.54.

A handwritten breakdown was attached. It took almost 16 months of pleading for a rates account and Mr Mgaga might care to discuss his financial constraints problem with his rates officer, who appears to have no interest in collecting what is due to the municipality.

I believe that the honest rate-paying residents of Howick should demand that the municipality publish a statement of the rates due to them. This must, surely, be the most inefficient municipality in the country, and I am not surprised to learn that there is a groundswell of opinion in Howick recommending a rates boycott. TONY CLUCAS | Howick