The ANC’s proposed rates policy for 2011 – 2012 will create extreme hardship for certain segments of eThekwini’s ratepayers.
While the ANC wants to lower the cap on the senior citizen rebate, the DA wants it removed, and to have senior citizens rates be determined on a sliding scale dependent on income.
The ANC is also targeting the soft underbelly of the hospitality industry: the Bed and Breakfast industry. This industry has burgeoned as a means for ratepayers to retain their homes, and as such we propose that the B&Bs be removed altogether from the current category which includes high-end guest houses and other accommodation, and paced in its own category with a definition that is for units of four bedrooms or less, with the owner living residing on the property. B&Bs in this new category should be rated at residential rates, without having to apply for a rebate.
Another inexcusable decision on the part of the ANC is to exclude Hospice and Frail Care Facilities from the public benefit organisations group which receive rates exemptions. Do they actually believe that these are not public benefit organisations? Has any ANC public rep from eThekwini actually visited such an organisation, or raised funds for one? They are run on the smell of an oil rag, and to force them to pay rates is unconscionable.
Also questionable is their decision to lump all private schools together with regards to rates, thereby comparing the large schools like Kearsney and Michaelhouse with the small neighbourhood school or crèche. There obviously needs to be a sliding scale dependent on enrolment.
The suggested rates policy the ANC has put on the table attacks the elderly, the organisations caring for the ill and dying, the home-owner trying to use their only investment to keep a roof over their heads, and the small pockets of excellence in education that teach children. |
