In response to a question posed about the status of the Richmond Hill Special Rating Area (SRA) in the comments section of this article – Proposed Central Special Rating Area – MBDA Communications Mangaer, Luvuyo Bangazi responds:
The MBDA, in consultation with the Richmond Hill Property Owners association acted very cautiously and promoted maximum participation from property owners in the area. After all it is not the role of the MBDA or the City to enforce the establishment of an SRA. It is important to note that neither the MBDA or the City can dictate what happens with the funds collected for the purposes the SRA – these matters are 10% under the control of the management body appointed by the property owners. 51% of the owners had to agree that an SRA may be established.
In establishing the Richmond Hill SRA, the process had to be public and open to all affected (owners, business and those renting in the area) to voice their opinions.
There were 14 extensively advertised public meetings between 28th July 2010 and 06 July 2013.
In the voting process only signed ballots were accepted and those who exercised proxy rights, had to produce a verifiable signed letter.
There are 1474 properties/erven in the area – including sectional title and excluding 52 properties belonging to the municipality.
Each ballot noted: Vote address, Erf no, name, surname, time voted, yes, no.
758 property owners voted yes (please see map outlining the yes’s) and 31 property owners voted no which represents 52% of the total which was 1% more than the required 51% to establish an SRA in Richmond Hill.
The establishment of the SRA can only be great news for the area as demonstrated elsewhere in other cities including Cape Town.
Anyone seeking more information is welcome to contact Luvuyo Bangazi at the MBDA.
Alan Straton
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This is very interesting news – bearing in mind that:
1. The Richmond Hill Ratepayers Association is most certainly not a recognised representative body of residents in the area. It was established to circumvent financial requirements of the CPF.
2. There was no voting process – the only “ballot papers” were consent forms! Perhaps the DA will not object to consent forms in the coming general elections?
2. More importantly – the “extensively advertised meetings” were held long before approval of the SRA policy by NMB-council. Talking about putting the horse before the cart!
I most certainly smell a rat.
Read the comments from ‘Jan’ and the thought ‘uninformed idiot’ do come to mind. First of all there is no Richmond Hill Ratepayers Association but an extremely active Richmond Hill Residents Association. Community meetings are held monthly and had been for many years where matters such as the upcoming SRA were discussed and the residents attending these meetings have the opportunity to air their views. How many of these meetings did Jan attend and from his side what is his contribution to the neighbourhood in keeping is safe and clean? Personally I shake my head at the audacity of some home owners who won’t lift a finger to help nor contribute one single cent to better this neighbourhood nor voiced an opinion or tried to stop the process now suddenly climbing out of the woodwork to ‘smell a rat’ … really??? Really !!!!
“It is wise to direct your anger towards problems — not people; to focus your energies on answers — not excuses.” William Arthur Ward”
Thank you for the quick tuition on correct linguistic use. I sincerely apologise for affronting you or anyone for abusing the name of your organisation.
The way you address my comments is exactly why I cannot contribute to your organisation. I have attended a number of your meetings, put questions on the table for you to address, was referred to a “being negative” and ignorant, none of my comments/questions were ever minuted. Now I’m also an idiot – is that how pro-SRA’s refer to residents of Richmond Hill?
I do contribute to the community,but do not carry it on my sleeve. I do pay my dues to the municipality and others in the area, however, I am not prepared to throw more money at a problem, hoping that it will disappear – the risk is too high.
Finally, although I’m also pro-SRA, I’d like to have honest answers from authorities – unlike you, who without name, prefer to follow incompetent authority like a blind mouse.