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Cape Town - Tshwane executive mayor Dr Gwen Ramokgopa today revealed shortcomings in the city's tariff structure that show that for years "the poor had been subsidising the rich."
Speaking at a press conference in Pretoria on Thursday, Dr Ramokgopa told journalists that investigations by the municipality's social development department show that the existing tariff structure had not benefited thousands of indigent households.
"It was in fact residents in middle and upper income groups who had benefited the most from the municipality's free basic services such as the provision of the first 6kl of water per month free to all residents," she said.
Indigent household are those with a combined monthly income of no more than R1 700.
Ramokgopa said from July 1, free water provision for households with indigent registration would be doubled to 12kl a month, provided their monthly consumption did not exceed 100kl of water.
Ratepayers in higher income groups would still get the first 6kl free water provided their monthly water consumption did not exceed 50 kl.
From July 1 indigent households would also be exempted from paying property tax if the value of the property does not exceed R10 000.00 and the property is used as a home and not a business.
Ramokgopa said: "We are now beefing up our finance and social development departments in an effort to address concerns about the poor."
This includes the appointment of more social workers and assistants in the social development department to visit poor households to carry out assessments.
Matter of priority
Meanwhile, Tswane chief financial officer, Me Ndanduleni Makhari, conceded that the so-called Resident Programme introduced two years ago to encourage ratepayers to pay on time, has also done nothing to benefit the poor.
The programme which was sub-contracted at a cost of millions of rands, offers lucrative discounts at upmarket stores for ratepayers who pay on time.
However, a major shortcoming is a lack of stores listed in townships. It boils down to indigent households not getting the same rewards as higher-income groups for paying municipal accounts on time.
Makhari told Fin24 that she "recently" became aware of the problem and that it was being sorted out as a matter of priority.
Regarding the municipality's adjusted tariff structure, Ramokgopa said a three-pronged approach would be followed; "This includes the adjusted tariffs, new measures to cater for the specific needs of extended families with more than one nucleus family in the home and exit-links for the unemployed."
But she said the outstanding debt of R2.4bn to the municipality in the form of arrears rates and taxes, would not be written off.
"We found during our meetings with indigent families that they are very keen to pay for services, but need special help to address their specific needs," Ramokgopa said.