The Democratic Alliance (DA) will write to the Gauteng MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA), Jacob Mamabolo, demanding his urgent intervention to enforce the court order for Lesedi Local Municipality to follow the correct processes for residents to give input on the Property Valuation Roll.
Residents living in Lesedi are being placed into financial difficulty because the municipality has defied a court order that found that the Property Valuation Roll did not follow the proper public notice process. As a result, residents may be paying higher rates and taxes than necessary. The Property Valuation Roll determines the rates and taxes residents need to pay for their property.
The DA Gauteng demands that the Lesedi Local Municipality restart the process to allow the public to comment on the valuation roll. This will allow residents to object and have a new legal valuation roll created.
Furthermore, it is unacceptable that residents in Lesedi have been forced to spend their hard-earned money on legal fees so that the court could compel the municipality to obey the law.
Lesedi is one of the municipalities that struggles to provide basic services to its residents. Instead of following the proper process to collect rates and taxes that would allow them to provide some services, they have opted to create an unlawful budget.
The DA Gauteng will continue to engage MEC Mamabolo to ensure that this issue is resolved as a matter of urgency.
A DA-led provincial government would ensure that when the Property Valuation Roll is published, residents are given the opportunity to comment or object as necessary, so they are not forced to pay exorbitant rates and taxes.
Lesedi residents deserve a government that will treat all its residents fairly.