Michael Jacobs, Ottery
Colin Arendse is being deliberately obtuse and disingenuous in his response to ward councillor Monty Oliver (“Core issues ignored”, Southern Mail, August 31).
Zubeida Jaffer’s questions are also deceptive.
They are both aware that rates and tarrifs raised in the wards are not spent entirely in the ward (as it should be), but is diverted to Khayelitsha, poor townships and informal settlements where nobody pays, so we subsidise these areas.
Now this is precisely why the City has a pro-poor budget and what the ANC always harangues the DA administration about. So why would they ask these questions if they know what the City’s commitments are?
If the City should (rightly) spend all the income in the wards it was raised, they would then blame the City for failing to spend in poor suburbs.
These comments from Mr Arendse should be seen for what it is, cheap politicking, and also lashing out because of his embarrassing loss as ANC candidate in Wynberg.