Dear Ratepayers, Business and Civil Society,
The recent chaos at the Traffic department is proof that our Metro is not interested in providing services to ratepayers and business. Of the 7000 people employed by the Metro, there are 400 or more staff on sick leave or suspended. Just after the industrial strikes the staff at the traffic department decided to go on a mass sick leave. A couple of weeks ago, reports that 3 traffic officers refused to assist a pedestrian who was knocked down by a motor vehicle. Their justification was that they were on strike. Well it’s now time for our cheque books to also go on strike to show the Metro and their staff that we have tolerated this financial abuse for far too long.
It’s common knowledge that Mr Yussef Jeeva, property owner and associate of Mr. Necba Faku, has not paid any of his municipal accounts for the past 6 years. The Metro has yet to hold him accountable for an outstanding R36M owed to the Metro.
We would like to thank you all for waiting patiently for us to get our strategy in place to start the dispute/withholding action. We can now continue with all our plans as we discussed with all of you who signed and forwarded your dispute forms to us. After numerous meetings with our legal team and other role players, we can now say that we will be able to dispute/withhold all tariffs and rates without the threat of service suspension by the Metro. We will forward/publish a document explaining this strategy, what it means to ratepayers, what to expect and how to handle unforseen situations.
Please remember the Metro is currently sitting on approximately 15 days of cash operating reserves. National Treasury will pay rates for government properties in the Metro before the end of September. That amount is expected to be R120M, giving the Metro some relief. We therefore have had to be tactical in when we submit the dispute forms to the Metro. We expect to serve the signed dispute forms from the middle of October, 2013. Please anticipate a document we will circulate next week about specific timings, actions and reactions expected.
Kobus Gerber
NMB Ratepayers Association
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