The City of Johannesburg has offered to recalculate bills of hundreds of schools hit with hefty rates bills for July.

At the end of July, 741 private schools and 921 public schools faced massive rates hikes as the new financial year saw the amended Municipal Property Rates Act come into effect.

TimesLIVE report that the new law scrapped the education classification that applied to schools, charging them as public benefit organisations and reclassifying them as businesses.

The result was that public schools were hit with rates bills about six times higher than their June bills, and private schools billed at 10 times their previous rate.

The city is now introducing a temporary one-year solution in the form of a 5% increase for all schools while they renegotiate the change in law with the Department of Co-operative Governance & Traditional Affairs to align the amendments with rates increases that are both fair and ‘will not unduly penalise ratepayers or place the city on the wrong side of the law or Auditor-General’.

Speaking at a briefing yesterday, Johannesburg’s executive mayor Mpho Phalatse said the city had been overwhelmed by queries, complaints and lawsuits against them after the implementation of the massive rate hikes in July.

Phalatse said while she and her team were compelled to comply with the amended legislation, they would ensure Johannesburg remains a caring and business-friendly city, and were committed to offering a solution ‘that creates a win-win for all in the short term while we address a long-term strategy’.

Full TimesLIVE report