Property prices in Bo-Kaap, Cape Town have pushed the average rates bill to about R1,5k a month and now residents in the suburb say that they cannot afford to live there anymore and are selling their homes for millions of rands and moving to cheaper suburbs.
According to the Bo-Kaap Civic Association chairman Osman Shaboodien, even the rates rebate granted to qualifying residents was insufficient and many working families did not qualify for the rebate anyway.
He says the rates and hefty electricity bills make it difficult for people to continue living in the area as they end up spending about 30% of their meagre monthly income on rates and utilities.
The association has written to the city officials asking them to reduce the rates but they have made no progress on resolving the dispute. The civic association now intends to call on the national government to intervene and offer the community some sort of relief.
Residents in the suburb say that the Cape Town council has failed to take the historical and cultural factors into account when calculating the rates that are payable and complain that they need some form of dispensation to make the rates affordable.
Ismail Davids, who has lived in the suburb for 48 years, says that property owners in the suburb are selling their homes “to wealthy overseas buyers” because they are unable to meeting their monthly bills.
The civic association will have to convince the national government to change the Local Government Municipal Property Rates Act of 2004, which states that municipalities must charge the same rate for all residential properties in a particular area.
Davids admits that he is fortunate enough to receive an “indigent” rebate from the council that has reduced his rates to a thousand rand a month but says that this is still much too high for him to pay.
He says that five years ago his rates bill was just R400 a month but this has risen to R1,5k a month since then. He concedes that the people of Bo-Kaap who own properties there are all millionaires on paper because of the soaring property prices.
Davids says that while the houses might be worth millions, the reality is the people of Bo-Kaap can’t live there because the charges they have to pay are just too high and as a result people are being forced to move away having sold their homes.
Shaboodien points out that the predominantly Malay community has been living in the suburb for more than 300 years.
Readers' Comments Have a comment about this article? Email us now.
I live in Pretoria and I have been staying in my house since 2003. I used to pay R415 for rates and taxes until the municipality decided that my house values more than double the price I initially build it for. I am now paying R1200 a month and the rates are going up again this month. Life is becoming very difficult and I am forced to sell my house as well. The gap between the rich and the poor is growing at a very fast pace. We are now forced to go back to locations where people don’t pay much for services. - Suzan
Personally: I think that this is forced removal!! Equivalent to the Group Area's Act of yester-year where the only options are no choice. I am from the Bo-Kaap and proud!! - Shu-aib Benjamin
This is the The Group Areas Act of 2011.
It is the forced removals from people of their homes in Bo-Kaap, due to the sharp increase in rates, this mainly over the past seven years.
Bo-kaap is historically and culturally rich.
Its people have been staying in the community for generations. Since the slave trade.
Now the prices of homes increase, The City of Cape Town, "is not working for us"
Rates are sky high with no consideration for residents livelihoods- so what are we suppose to do to survive? - LEAVE OUR HOMES? - Malika Alexander
Is it not just a ploy” – devious one – to get the Muslim-majority residents out of this prime area and have it owned by the elite – Could be a DA master plan!!!! A culturally and historically Muslim populated area which after over 300 years of occupation is now being targeted by the elite....
Just a thought..... - N. Martin
The same situation is arising in the Northern Suburbs of Cape Town. Eventually, we will have to move to a residence with a more affordable rate. - R. Venter
No Mr. Martin. It is not only applicable to the coloured community. Even we whites, in the northern and southern suburbs, are financially ruined by rates and taxes! From 1 July 2011 we will have to fork out another 8% increase towards rates and taxes. Leave alone all the other increases towards the other services delivered by the City of Cape Town! - PAT
Print
