Valuations Payment Options (29th June)

Discussions with the Mayor have presented dissatisfied Ratepayers with two options should they not be happy with their new valuations. In instances where the valuer has not taken actual sales in an area into account, Ratepayers are justified to be unhappy with valuations which in many instances are grossly inflated. What makes the situation even more unfair is the fact that many properties have been undervalued. This results in the remaining Ratepayers having to pay more, in order to fund a Municipal Budget that is perceived by many to be grossly inflated and mismanaged.

What options have been agreed to by the Mayor and his Chief Financial Officer? Should an objection or appeal be found to be correct, the Kouga Municipality will immediately pay into the Ratepayers bank account, the excess rates and taxes that have been paid by the Ratepayer. This will include the “prime plus one” interest that the excess in payment would have earned.

The other option discussed is that should a Ratepayer feel confident that his property has been over valued, he or she could pay Rates and Taxes based on the valuation that the Ratepayer is convinced is correct. This will result in interest being charged on the shortfall in payment until such time that the valuation has been corrected. If the Ratepayers valuation is found to be correct then the interest and over charge will be reversed by the Kouga Municipality. If this option is followed, it is important to keep accurate records in order to ensure that ones account can be properly reconciled.

Where does this leave Ratepayers in Kouga? Apart from the anger and frustration, there are still a number of issues that need to be addressed. The Mayor has as yet not provided Ratepayers with an answer as to how the Kouga Valuations Role will be corrected. Unless this is done Ratepayers will be faced with an unfair Valuations Role for years to come.

What is far more distressing is that the Mayor appears to be completely “out of touch” with the feelings of the ratepayers. How can a Mayor not take into account the budget recommendations of his constituency? How can he be allowed to increase our Municipal expense budget by over 45% which we the Ratepayers have to pay? In difficult economic times like this how can he expect Ratepayers to fund lavish nonsensical overseas trips for the Mayor and Municipal Officials? Why can’t he spell out what economic benefits these trips will bring to our region? Municipal Officials could use their time far more effectively by simply applying good management practices within Kouga. Simple straightforward things like drawing up tight budgets, controlling overtime, providing proper training and supervision and by applying proper HR practices so that it would not be not be necessary to provide Golden Handshakes to dismissed or out of favour Municipal Officials.

Finally Mr. Mayor, Ratepayers are not amused to see that you are now intending to buy an Audi Q7 with Ratepayers hard earned money. Surely you can see the extravagance of buying a R800, 000 car with all the extras or have you lost touch? Does the Mayor not understand that this expenditure also adds to the rates burden no matter where this expense is hidden in the budget? Do you not feel that this money can be better spent on providing better service delivery to Ratepayers in your fiefdom? Our understanding is that the role of the Municipality is to serve the people not that ratepayers are there to support the lavish life style of officials at the expense of service delivery and competent management.