Tshwane flouts rates policy

INCONSISTENT: KLEINFONTEIN PENALISED, BUT NO MOVE ON SOME ILLEGAL DEVELOPMENTS

- Antoinette Slabbert

THE EXCEPTION. The city recategorised the Afrikaner settlement Kleinfontein to non-permitted use, which sets its rates tariff at 7.5 times that of normal residential property.

(Picture: Kleinfontein Facebook page)

The City of Tshwane has confirmed that it has no immediate plans to levy property rates at the appropriate punitive scale in the numerous illegal developments in and around Pretoria, despite its dire financial situation.

That means other property owners will continue to subsidise them by paying more, since the amount of revenue the city budgets for is spread proportionally among the paying owners.

This comes as the city is trying to delay the court-ordered payment of around R1.5 billion in salary increases for municipal staff outstanding since 2022, because it does not have the money to do so.

By failing to categorise illegal developments - where owners of thousands of formal houses are not paying property rates as non-permitted use, the city is ignoring its own rates policy, said Rates Watch director Ben Espach.