The way the eThekwini Municipality is being run is unsustainable. When you think about it, there are 3,5 Million [1] residents in eThekwini Municipality, 350,000 [2] of these are rate payers and of those 57,000 [3] are exempt from paying rates as part of the social package, that means 8.37% of the resident of eThekwini Municipality are contributing to the R26 billion budget of the Municipality. Anyone who says this is sustainable is delusional.

To make matters worse the Municipality has a policy of not offering incentives to attract new businesses into the Municipality. Cllr Rick Crouch asked the following questions in the 28th September 2010 sitting of the full council; Does the Municipality have plans to offer incentives to businesses to encourage them to relocate and invest in the Municipality? The answer was NO! And in the answer to my follow-up question they said that they did not want to upset the current businesses by offering incentives to new businesses. I have spoken to many business men and women since then and, without exception, none of them held this view. Quite the opposite, they were of the opinion that it would help them in the long term.

"We have to do something about increasing our rates base, because as I have said the current situation is not sustainable. Some ideas are; a rates holiday for new or relocating businesses, a reduction in operating costs like electricity and water etc." Said Councillor Rick Crouch

Councillor Crouch said' "If we increase our rates base we will be able to lower the rates for everyone. We have to be the destination of choice for businesses and residents alike. When a business is looking for somewhere to locate or relocate, we have to be their choice, and to do that it has to be cheaper to business here than anywhere else. Here is a radical idea, to some anyway, if the Municipality needs more income, how about lowering rates and utility cost to the consumer, this would mean more ratepayers moving here because of the lower cost of living thereby increasing the rates base and by default, the rates / utilities income to the Municipality. We have to stop thinking about the now and focus on the long term. We are leaving our children and grandchildren with an enormous financial burden."

CONTACT: Councillor Rick Crouch eThekwini Municipality Economic Development Committee Member (073) 418-6996 councillor@ward93.co.za

REFERENCES [1] Thomas Brinkhoff: City Population [2] eThekwini Treasury Dept [3] eThekwini Treasury Dept