Rae Wolpe, deputy chairperson, Little Mowbray Rosebank Improvement District
How much will the Little Mowbray Rosebank Improvement District (LMRID) cost property owners?
The City of Cape Town recently approved of the establishment of the LMRID after a public participation process spanning two years.
The scheme will come into effect on Friday July 1 – the start of the City’s next financial year.
Last week’s Tatler article (“Mixed reaction to SRA”, Tatler, May 5) contained inaccuracies, including a substantial misrepresentation of the cost of the SRA to each subscriber.
Each property owner’s SRA levy will be calculated based on the City of Cape Town’s 2015 general property valuation. For residential properties, the annual cent in the rand will be 0.000652 and for commercial properties it will be 0.001293 excluding VAT.
Property owners can calculate their respective monthly SRA contribution as follows: Your property value (2015 valuation) x 0.000652 / 12 = SRA rate (ex VAT).
By way of example, a residential property with a value of R3.2 million will pay 3 200 000 x 0.000652 / 12 = R173.87 (ex VAT), which is R198.21 (inc VAT) a month.
Property owners will have received a letter from the City of Cape Town containing their estimated 2015 property values. Alternatively, property owners can enter their erf number into the City’s online database to find out their property value (which will come into effect 1 July 2016). The database can be found at https://web1. capetown.gov.za/web1/GV2015/
The concerns expressed in last week’s Tatler by a property owner about the SRA levy (“The rates increase of R200-R300 that was mooted by the steering committee for the SRA will instead become R700 – R1000”) are misinformed and incorrect.
The LMRID business plan was designed to keep the overall annual budget as low as possible in order to minimise the SRA levy amount for property owners.
According to the LMRID Steering Committee chairperson, Marc Gammon, “The approval to establish LMRID represents a key milestone and opportunity in the lives of the Little Mowbray and Rosebank communities to combine forces and continue working together to reduce crime and improve our quality of life, in collaboration with the neighbourhood watches, the South African Police services and other partners.
“Given that 68% percent of property owners voted in support of establishing LMRID, the focus now needs to shift to ensuring that LMRID makes a positive difference in the lives of our communities.
“The success of LMRID will be dependent on good communication and co-operation with all property owners and residents. We call on any property owner to contact the LMRID Steering Committee if they have questions and/or would like to become involved in any way”.
The steering committee are all volunteers and a huge amount of work lies ahead to turn the LMRID vision into reality.
Further information can be found on the LMRID website (https://lmrid.capetown/) and Facebook page (www.facebook.com/littlemowbrayrosebanksra/) or by contacting LMRID committee representatives Marc Gammon (LMRID chairperson): 083 2570 237 Rae Wolpe (LMRID deputy chairperson): 076 8199 886.
* While the rate estimates were quoted as the opinion of a resident, the Tatler regrets any confusion or misconceptions this may have caused – Chantel Erfort, Editor.
