The Democratic Alliance has slammed the tariff charges to be levied on home businesses, tuck shops and B&B’s as strangling job creation and increasing the costs of making a living. The DA's comments were made at the meeting of the eThekwini Economic Development and Planning committee held at City Hall on March 3.
Councillor Rick Crouch said that the proposed tariff of R8,423 to be levied on persons operating home businesses, B&B’s and tuck shops is crippling to the economy and job creation and will do nothing more than encourage illegal businesses.
When challenged, ANC Chief Whip, Fawzia Peer stated that “businesses could afford these increases.”
Councillor Rick Crouch pointed out that the proposed tariffs were some R7,000 higher than what was charged by the Cape Town Municipality for the exact same service, ”is it because we are just that much more unproductive in eThekwini”.
Challenged by Councillor Rick Crouch to explain why this was the case, officials from the eThekwini’s planning and development unit stated that the city had to abide by the guidelines set out by the Provincial Development Act (PDA) which required that special consent be sought for home businesses and as a result carried higher costs.
So it appears that the ANC led council is blaming the ANC led province for destroying job growth in eThekwini. The PDA legislation applied only in KZN is how the city officials explained the huge discrepancy between tariffs charged by Cape Town and those charged by eThekwini.
“It is absolutely disingenuous for the ANC to talk about creating jobs when their actions prove just the opposite.” Said Councillor Crouch |
