There is a rates fiasco within the Department of Local government and Traditional Affairs.<\/p>\n
Replying in a speech to the 2010\/11 Annual report to the Eastern Cape Legislature today I raised the seriousness of wrong information given with regards to municipal rates policies.<\/p>\n
The report of the department states under programme 3 finding (2) (d) that the department had assisted only three out of 45 municipalities in the province to promulgate rates policies and valuation rolls.<\/p>\n
However, a written reply to a parliamentary question, Internal Question Paper number 16 of 2010, question 144, revealed that 38 out of 40 municipalities had been assisted to implement the provisions of the Property Rates Act.<\/p>\n
Of concern is why the department is sending out conflicting information with regards to municipal rate implementation policies in the province.<\/p>\n
This serious anomaly must again highlight the problems municipalities have in enforcing and collecting rates revenue income.<\/p>\n
Local Government must stop bleating about underfunding and financial constraints when they can\u2019t even organise a coherent rates strategy in the province.<\/p>\n
As rates make up a small percentage and often the only independent revenue aside from grant and equitable share funding, it is criminal that the department is not oversighting this function adequately.<\/p>\n
The sustained capacity of municipal rate collection enhances the quality of life for all, especially the vulnerable, to access services.<\/p>\n
If there are no rates then there are no services and communities sink deeper into helplessness and poverty.<\/p>\n
I today I asked the MEC in the House to do the following to rectify the situation:<\/p>\n
Firstly to obtain the correct facts around rate implementation in the province and to then make this information public.<\/p>\n
In addition I have suggested that rate revenue collection and policy be one of the main performance review benchmarks for the employment contracts of Municipal Managers and Chief Financial Officers.<\/p>\n
Finally I suggested that innovative ways be found to ensure that rate reviews and incentives also be considered to attract greater business and\/or residential influence in every municipality in the province.<\/p>\n
Dacre Haddon, MPL<\/strong><\/p>\n [wpramazon asin=”B002RI9I3S”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" There is a rates fiasco within the Department of Local government and Traditional Affairs. Replying in a speech to the 2010\/11 Annual report to the Eastern Cape Legislature today I raised the seriousness of wrong information given with regards to municipal rates policies. The report of the department states under programme 3 finding (2) (d) […]<\/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":[992,305,161,2330],"class_list":{"0":"post-5939","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-dacre-haddon","8":"tag-democratic-alliance","9":"tag-eastern-cape-2","10":"tag-rates","11":"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\/5939","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=5939"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5939\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5941,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5939\/revisions\/5941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}