Church must pay R9 000 to buy R50 of electricity
Churches are now allegedly classified as industrial and not households anymore.
EVANDER – Past Lourens Badenhorst from the Baptist Church has been experiencing problems with his municipal account.
Apart from buying pre-paid electricity monthly, the church receives an account of R96-33 for basic electrical charges and R51-35 for electrical network charges.
According to Past Badenhorst these amounts are paid on the church’s normal electricity account.
The church was informed that they have to pay a levy of R600 monthly on its pre-paid meter before they can buy electricity.
“In other words, with VAT and everything included, we must pay R779-75 per month before we can buy R50 of electricity,” said Past Badenhorst.
“Our church only uses a small portion of electricity per month and uses less than R50’s worth of electricity because we only have one church service per week during the day.
“In the past we bought R50’s electricity and also received the ‘free allocation’ from the municipality.
“With the result that electricity available to us did build up on our pre-paid meter.
“We stopped buying electricity on the pre-paid meter because of the excess that was available.
“We took photos of the meter from time to time to show how the reading slowly came down as we used the electricity.
“Eventually we ran out of electricity on 1 March.
“When we went to the municipal offices to buy electricity for R50 to load our pre-paid meter, we were informed that we had to pay R9 684 before we could buy electricity for R50.
“We were informed that churches have been moved from the household category under which it was placed over the years onto the commercial/industrial category.”
However according to Past Badenhorst, in the Govan Mbeki Municipal tariff book, he could not find such a category for churches.
“We are not a business, we are not commercial or industrial.
“We do not manufacture anything, nor do we sell anything, or render services for payment.
“According to the Act on Local Government, municipal property act rate point 17i, we are classified as religious, under which we are granted exemption of property tax.
“ Thus our category should be religious.”
Past Badenhorst sent letters to municipal councillors as well as the mayor on 3 March.
He received a phone call later on the same day from a woman who said she was calling on the instruction of the mayor and asked him questions and said she would get back to him.
She told Past Badenhorst that the municipality had a meeting with the pastors of the churches in the region, however, Past Badenhorst had no knowledge of this meeting.
He sent the municipality another letter and asked questions about the meeting.
“I wanted to know when the pastors met with officials of the municipality, where the meeting was held, whether all the pastors of the Govan Mbeki municipal area, including Secunda, Evander, eMbalenhle, Leandra, Kinross, Trichardt, Bethal, eMzinoni, Charl Ciliers and Lebohang, were informed of the meeting.
“In my letter I also asked how the pastors were informed of the meeting, if the minutes of the meeting are available and if there was an attendance register.”
Past Badenhorst wanted to know whether all the churches in the area pay this new levy or only churches with pre-paid electricity meters.
“Why did the municipality not inform us of this new levy?
“Why did they not stipulate it on our normal account that we receive monthly?
“Is it possible for us to get a breakdown of the R9 684 that we apparently owe the municipality?”
The Ridge Times asked the Govan Mbeki Municipality’s communications department and the municipal manager, Mr Thisha Mhlanga, for comment on Friday, 16 March and asked how it was possible that a church that uses R50’s worth of electricity per month must pay more than R9 000 before they can buy R50 electricity.
The newspaper also asked whether the municipality now categorises churches under the industrial category and not household category anymore and when the meeting with the pastors was held.
He did not comment.
