Various civic associations and community members lobbying for better service delivery in the Greater Durban area have vowed to continue their fight to have the recent tariff increase by eThekwini Municipality declared null and void.
The civic groups have now embarked on a campaign to reach out at grassroots level in a bid to address residents about the impact of the tariff increase. The Westville Rates Protest Movement (WRPM), which originated from the Westville Ratepayers Association (WRA), held a meeting in Tongaat to address residents on the rates boycott debacle.
The meeting was held at the Tongaat Town Hall on Wednesday, 12 September.
The Chairperson of the Westville Ratepayers Association, Asad Gaff who was representing the movement, laid bare facts as to the reasons behind the protest as well as the formation of the WRPM.
He said the civic associations want the Municipality to review the tariff increase that the City passed in the 2022/2023 budget. This was confirmed by the Chairperson for the Tongaat Civic Association, Don Perumall who said that the meeting was fruitful with a good turnout from local residents.
“We are asking the residents to withhold the funds and pay them into the trust account that is being managed by the Westville Civic Association. We are not asking residents to withhold payments and not pay to the trust account. We will withhold payments until we get a Memorandum of Understanding from eThekwini Municipality,” said Perumal.
He added: “The rates on vacant land in eThekwini are higher than in Cape Town and Johannesburg or any other city. We want to have a direct line where residents can lodge a complaint without waiting for consultants from the call centre to escalate the matter to the Municipality. We want to communicate directly with the Municipality. Civic associations want a better service delivery.”
Residents, civic organisations and the eThekwini Municipality have been locked in a dispute over tariff increaseS from 1 July, after the ratepayers associations initiated the boycott. Meanwhile, the Municipality issued a statement last week, saying that residents and civic associations agreed to form a partnership with the City to “resolve the challenges facing residents”.
The eThekwini Mayor, Councillor Mxolisi Kaunda and Council Speaker, Thabani Nyawose, met with the ratepayers and residents’ associations in Phoenix on Friday, 15 September, to discuss the ongoing battle. The associations represented areas such as Chatsworth, Clare Estate, Queensburgh, Reservoir Hills, Phoenix and Verulam.
According to a statement, residents complained about the ageing infrastructure, refuse collection, water and electricity outages. “The Municipality has set up teams of plumbers to fix water leaks and sewer spillages, often caused by the abuse of sewer infrastructure,” the statement said.
Kaunda made a commitment to intervene in service delivery challenges raised by the Association. He said at the end of the engagements with ratepayers, the City will attach service delivery champions to each association who will be intervening in service delivery challenges in various areas.
“This will be supported by the new zonal service delivery model which entails the clustering of wards and adequate allocation of staff that will fix service delivery complaints promptly. The City has also prioritised the budget to purchase jetting machines to address the challenges of sewer spillages,” Kaunda said.
The Westville Civic Association has since filed an urgent court interdict at the Durban High Court in a bid to stop the municipality from disconnecting municipal services from residents who joined its movement.
According to the Association, five residents in Westville had their lights disconnected due to non-payment of rates. This prompted the Association to approach the high court to compel the Municipality to restore the services to the affected residents.
