The KwaZulu-Natal public works and infrastructure department has received an early Christmas gift from the provincial Treasury to settle millions owed in rates. This follows an additional allocation of R193.6m towards property rates during the adjustment budget announced by finance MECFrancois Rodgerson Thursday. Rodgers pointed out that the additional funding is necessary to fix public works’ baseline budget and address the sharp increases that municipalities have imposed after the new general valuation rolls.
“Failure to meet these obligations would result in undue hardship to various state facilities such as schools and hospitals,” he said. This, however, is already the case in eThekwini where public works owes more than R500m. This has resulted in a standoff between the city and the department, resulting in the former cutting its water and electricity services to buildings likeTruro House, which houses various departments including education.
Transport is another department that has been heavily affected, with the disconnections affecting licensing and testing centres in the city. Public works was only allocated R900m, which covers half of the money it needs to cover its property rates. Public works MECMartin Meyerpreviously told TimesLIVE that efforts to settle the R1.8bn debt the department owed to municipalities in the province were undermined by a severe funding shortfall, a point Rodgers reiterated.
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“We must indicate that the department is still underfunded with respect to property rates and baseline reviews are under way across all departments,” he said. Rodgers confirmed that provincial government is working on a long-term solution to the matter through the KwaZulu-Natal financial recovery plan. “There is some work being done as part of the provincial financial recovery plan to reduce the property rates bill, in part by selling state properties that are no longer being used, but also negotiating better rates with various municipalities and this should have an impact on the future provincial property rates bill,” he said.
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