Durban – The KwaZulu-Natal public works MEC says the continual failure to timeously pay municipal rates for government properties is jeopardising intergovernmental relations.
Dr Ntuthuko Mahlaba said the money allocated to his department for this purpose was not sufficient, yet some municipalities needed it.
Mahlaba said this on Wednesday when he presented his department’s 2023/2023 budget before the KwaZulu-Natal legislature in Pietermaritzburg.
The issue of rates payments for government properties, as well as for water and electricity, has been a thorny issue for quite some time.
Sometimes municipalities are forced to cut services like water and electricity in order to force departments to settle outstanding rates debts.
Mahlaba said: “The department, as the custodian of all provincial government properties, is responsible for payment of property rates that are levied on state-owned immovable assets by the local municipalities.
“The department has for the past five financial years been allocated an insufficient budget for property rates.
“The expenditure rates bill has remained just over a R1 billion each year, whilst the allocated budget has been over R300 million less each year.
“The non-payment of the outstanding rates debt results in several municipalities imposing interest on outstanding accounts as well as disconnection of services, which has a negative impact on service delivery in the province.
“The non-payment of the balance of the outstanding rates debt is jeopardising the good relations between the Provincial Department of Public Works and affected municipalities.
“On this note, we request the Provincial Treasury for continuous support in this matter.”
While delivering the budget, Mahlaba said he was proud to announce that his department, as an implementing agent, was able to complete 1 273 capital projects valued at R5.5bn.
Among those capital projects is the Clairwood Hospital in Durban.
Mahlaba said: “Currently, a total of 150 infrastructure projects are at construction stage amount to R1.8 billion across all districts.
“These projects significantly contribute towards job creation and improvement of the economy at the ward-based level.”
Mahlaba would later on Thursday present the budget of the Department of Human Settlement, and among the major programmes of this department is eradicating slums across the province and finishing stalled social housing projects.
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