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Relief as Joburg to increase schools' rates by 5%, not business classification rates

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Hundreds of schools can breathe easy again after being hit with hefty rates bills for July – thanks to the City of Johannesburg’s offer to recalculate their bills to a standard 5% across the board.

Executive mayor of Joburg Mpho Phalatse announces the city's intention to implement a 5% increase on schools's rates bills after a change in law saw them being reclassified as businesses and hit with charges hiked to up to 10 times as much as their old rates.Hundreds of schools across Johannesburg can breathe easy again after being hit with hefty rates bills for July – thanks to the City of Johannesburg’s offer to recalculate their bills to a standard 5% across the board.

At the end of July 741 private schools and 921 public schools were sent reeling as the new financial year saw the amended Municipal Property Rates Act come into effect. The new law saw the scrapping of the education classification that applied to schools, charging them as public benefit organisations and reclassifying them as businesses.

The result was that public schools were hit with rates bills about six times higher than their June bills, and private schools billed at 10 times their previous rate. The city is introducing a temporary one-year solution in the form of a 5% increase for all schools while they renegotiate the change in law with the department of cooperative governance and traditional affairs to align the amendments with rates increases that are both fair and “will not unduly penalise ratepayers or place the city on the wrong side of the law or anuditor-general”.

Speaking at a briefing where the solution was announced and explained, Joburg’s executive mayor Mpho Phalatse said the city had been overwhelmed by queries, complaints and lawsuits against them after the implementation of the massive rate hikes in July.

 

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Relief as Joburg to increase schools' rates by 5%, not business classification ratesHundreds of schools across Johannesburg can breathe easy again after being hit with hefty rates bills for July – thanks to the City of Johannesburg’s offer to recalculate their bills to a standard 5% across the board.
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