LETTER: Properties are valued in cloud cuckoo land

Like many other property owners I was shocked at the recent “revaluation” of my home by the City of Johannesburg, which suggests it is worth 32% more than in 2018, whereas it has probably depreciated by at least 10% with the exodus from the northern suburbs to the Western Cape. 

The basis for municipal values is supposed to be the market value, but a quick search for recent house sales shows the average price has gone down significantly since the Covid-19 pandemic. Where the municipal valuers have sucked these numbers from is beyond me, but the best way to get them out of cloud cuckoo land is for them to offer to buy my house, and everyone else’s, at their “market value”. Here are the keys, guys, I’m off!

It is sad that the government is the architect of the failure of SA’s municipalities by allowing them to act irrationally and not in the best interests of ratepayers and people they are supposed to represent. The government is specifically legislated to “provide for the core principles, mechanisms and processes that are necessary to enable municipalities to move progressively towards the social and economic upliftment of local communities, and ensure universal access to essential services that are affordable to all.”

Yet it has shown itself unable to provide access to electricity at affordable tariffs. The same goes for water, while most local roads are full of potholes. We pay more and get less. At a recent open day, a friend was informed that the municipality did the city budget and then worked out what the rate hikes would have to be to meet it!  True or not, the worst thing is municipalities know full well who can pay and who won’t,  so no budget will ever be able to solve the culture of nonpayment.

The municipality business model is broken, and now that nearly all of them have no credit rating, no banks will invest or provide debt financing when the biggest cost is ineffective salaried employees. It doesn’t help that they continue to attack residents who do still pay and will soon leave, making the situation even worse.

So while the downward spiral continues the private sector needs to come up with securitised and ring-fenced funding models for power (private solar is already spreading like wildfire), water (privatised utilities) and more tolling systems for road management. South Africans are amazingly resourceful, and moving the finance away from corrupt fingers will be one step in the right direction.

Andy Clay
Via email

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