Metro chases business away – DA
The DA in Ekurhuleni has, once again, warned mayor Clr Mondli Gungubele, that the contributions demanded by the metro Council of New Businesses are effectively chasing away investment.
Speaking at the latest public council meeting, the DA’s Clr Benno Robinson, said that he, once again, demanded that the calculation of the contributions to this fund be revealed to the public.
“Moreover, the metro is losing out on any kind of business investment when companies are forced to pay almost 100 per cent of the cost of the property to the contribution fund.”
According to Robinson, like local government everywhere, the metro charges businesses that want to develop properties they have purchased, a fee to cover the costs of infrastructure development such as roads, stormwater, sewerage, and electricity connections.
However, Robinson continued, the metro seemingly has the highest contribution fund figures in the whole of Gauteng, while not even the officials who deal with property rezoning know how the various departments calculate their costs.
“My DA colleagues and I in the City Planning and Economic Development (CPED) oversight committee have, since July last year, been promised that the calculation of how each department determines the cost of installing extra services will be revealed to us.
“We were promised information by October, which has come and long passed.”
Robinson says that the newly-opened Business Facilitation Centre in Kempton Park is at serious risk of becoming a white elephant if the contribution fund continues to chase business away.
“By way of example, a small bookkeeping business in an established area purchased the house across the road, and rezoned it into a business.
“The purchase price was R850 000, and even after the renovations, this business has now been charged R770 000 as a contribution, despite the fact that the metro has to do no work to provide bulk services such as additional roads or sewerage.
“Any business, considering an investment in Ekurhuleni, would think twice or find alternative premises in another municipality when it comes down to the contribution fund costs.”
The DA raised serious concern on the item in the Council meeting, because the agenda stated that clauses in the town planning document and “other relevant policies” made provision for the metro;s contribution fund charges.
“In fact, there are no clauses in the town planning document and the DA has to question that if these policies existed. They must be top secret, because no one seems to have read any of them.
“The Business Centre is destined to become a ghost town, because the devil is in the details and in this case the detail is unexplained and exorbitant,” Robinson says.
