The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Tshwane received answers from Mayor Moya on a set of questions submitted relating to the newly implemented City Cleansing levy. In these answers, Moya admitted that the City had, to date, spent R783 000 of taxpayers’ money on defending the legality of this levy in court.
Moya’s letter also indicated that there were no costs for city cleansing budgeted against the income from the levy, thereby conceding to the court ruling that set aside the cleansing levy, where the court found that the city could not prove that the funds generated would, in fact, be used for the purpose of city cleansing.
The City has petitioned the Supreme Court of Appeal to have this ruling overturned. Planning to spend even more taxpayers’ money to institute this new tax, regardless of Moya’s own admission that the court ruling is correct and that the levy was not intended to be used for the purpose it is raised, but would be a way to generate extra funds to balance the City’s budget.
Concerns with the city cleansing levy stretch further than just the ongoing legal battles, it has also exposed the crisis in the City’s billing department.
Last week, the DA urged residents to push back against double billing, as owners of sectional title properties across the City saw this levy on their September accounts, while they are already paying for waste removal on body corporate accounts. Late on Friday, 26 September, the City admitted that this was a systems error and they urged affected complexes to contact them to have it rectified. It is glaringly obvious that the City has no handle on who should be billed this city cleansing levy and are now expecting residents to help them resolve their own created crisis.
DA councillors are committed to working with communities to assist the City’s billing department by compiling a comprehensive list of all properties which have been double billed which will be submitted to the City Manager to have affected accounts credited.
The DA in Tshwane urges the City to cease spending taxpayers’ money in defending this flawed levy in court, admit that the introduction of this levy was a mistake and to halt credit control measures being taken on accounts levied with a city cleansing item, until this billing crisis is resolved.