Inge Ruigrok
THE Greater Johannesburg TMC this week granted welfare organisations a reprieve until June from the death blow of having to pay full municipal rates on their properties.
The move was in response to pressure from the “Lobby Against Rates” — a delegation of Gauteng-based welfare organisations — and took the form of an immediate moratorium on the March 1994 amendment to the Local Authorities Rating Ordinance.
This may be the first step towards repealing the amendment, which reversed welfare and charitable organisations’ exemption from paying rates on property, and would have seen a 47 percent increase in their rate bills over the next two years.
The issue is expected to be discussed in parliament within two weeks, after almost a year of lobbying.
If the amendment is not reversed, a medium sized agency will face a rates bill of R30 000 in 1995, increasing to over R90 000 by 1997. In Greater Johannesburg alone, welfare organisations would have to pay an additional R3,5-million to the TMC.
The “Lobby Against Rates” fears that such an amount would cripple those welfare organisations who are already hamstrung by a tough economic climate, diminishing government subsidies and donor fatigue.
The amendment of the ordinance will also have an adverse effect on the reconstruction and development programme. “If organisations have to close down it will effect the programme,” said lobby spokesman Brenda Taylor.