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The government owes the eThekwini Municipality more than R247-million in unpaid property rates.<\/p>\n
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Durban – The government owes the eThekwini Municipality more than R247-million in unpaid property rates, according to the city\u2019s finance and procurement committee\u2019s monthly report for last month.<\/strong> <\/p>\n \u201cThis is a clear indication that eThekwini is failing the city,\u201d said DA caucus leader Zwakele Mncwango.<\/strong> <\/p>\n The city could not afford to have its coffers depleted by such a large sum, he said.<\/strong> <\/p>\n \u201cThis outstanding government debt would go a long way in aiding the municipality to provide housing and other basic services to those in need,\u201d said Mncwango.<\/strong> <\/p>\n According to the report, the main culprit was the national Department of Public Works, which owed the municipality R51-million, R35-million of which was more than 120 days overdue.<\/strong> <\/p>\n Other departments in arrears included regional and land affairs, education, housing, health and transport, and the report said R43-million was owed by \u201cunconfirmed\u201d government accounts, which were being investigated by the real estate department. The unconfirmed accounts would be recovered once property ownership was confirmed, the report said, and this process was expected to be completed by the end of the year.<\/strong> <\/p>\n City treasurer Krish Kumar said these \u201cunconfirmed\u201d government accounts worried him. <\/strong> <\/p>\n These accounts included housing accounts which were previously the responsibility of the provincial government and were later transferred to local government.<\/strong> <\/p>\n \u201cNow we have to go through each account and establish who is responsible for it,\u201d said Kumar. \u201cIt is a lengthy process, and a special task team has been established to handle the matter.\u201d<\/strong> <\/p>\n He also admitted concern over money owed by section 20 and section 21 schools.<\/strong> <\/p>\n \u201cSome schools have used money that the government allocated to them to pay their rates for stationery,\u201d he said.<\/strong> <\/p>\n \u201cThe provincial government recently announced it would make available an additional R400-million for rates.\u201d<\/strong> <\/p>\n Despite his concerns, Kumar was \u201cmore than happy\u201d with the progress being made on recovering the debt, parts of which were \u201chistoric\u201d.<\/strong> <\/p>\n \u201cThe debt has decreased substantially, from between R700-million and R800-million a few years ago,\u201d he said.<\/strong> <\/p>\n The DA accused the municipality of having offered the government preferential treatment, but Kumar said this was not the case.<\/strong> <\/p>\n \u201cCertain government departments, and even some schools, have had their amenities switched off. We have definitely taken legal action, where necessary.\u201d<\/strong> <\/p>\n Kumar pointed out that the eThekwini Municipality had the highest collection rate in the country last year.<\/strong> <\/p>\n \u201cIt was 97 percent. And our collection rate is sitting at 104 percent this year.\u201d<\/strong> <\/p>\n This meant the municipality was collecting more money than it expected to.<\/strong> <\/p>\n \u201cWe have been working closely with the Finance Department and National Treasury. And we have made good progress with our debtors,\u201d Kumar said.<\/strong> <\/p>\n \u201cThe municipality would continue to work with government and all money owed would be recouped.\u201d – The Mercury<\/strong> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" . The government owes the eThekwini Municipality more than R247-million in unpaid property rates. Durban – The government owes the eThekwini Municipality more than R247-million in unpaid property rates, according to the city\u2019s finance and procurement committee\u2019s monthly report for last month. \u201cThis is a clear indication that eThekwini is failing the city,\u201d said DA […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[8275,953,2143],"class_list":{"0":"post-19140","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-durban","8":"tag-newspaper","9":"tag-the-mercury","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19140"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19140\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}