Ethekwini writes off Malvern Children's Home R284K rates bill
The Malvern Children’s Home made over R5 000 in their vegetable market and bake sale held at the home on Saturday. Picture: Supplied The Malvern Children’s Home made over R5 000 in their vegetable market and bake sale held at the home on Saturday. Picture: Supplied
Durban - The eThekwini Municipality has written off the R284 000 rates bill the Malvern Children’s Home has to pay, which added to their municipal bill reaching more than R1 million.
The home also owes a catering company, Feedem, R1.1million.
The home is faced with closure if it does not settle its debt, while the management also try to cover their monthly costs like groceries, petrol and monthly bills.
Over the weekend, Andile Ncamana, the director of the Malvern Child and Youth Care Centre, told the Daily News that he had a meeting with the municipality on Friday and walked out of there “feeling like a weight had been lifted”.
Ncamana went to the Florence Mkhize building, formerly known as the Martin West building, on Anton Lembede (Smith) Street in the Durban city, to enquire about the home’s debt.
“As soon as I entered the municipality, at the reception area, there’s a picture of us and it’s written ‘Malvern Children’s Home’.
“Can you imagine, at the reception of the eThekwini Municipality,” Ncamana said in disbelief.
“I found out that the rates, which were R284 000, which contributed to the account sitting at R1million, have been written off, thank God.”
He said initially the municipality had said they would have to pay half the bill before engaging in negotiations but, instead of having to pay 50% as a down payment, the municipality said they had to pay 5%, which he paid on Saturday.
He said today he would go into the municipality for the negotiations for the monthly payment.
The Malvern Children’s Home made over R5 000 in their vegetable market and bake sale held at the home on Saturday. Picture: Supplied
“So they gave us 5% to pay and then 36 months to pay the rest. Which is not bad at all. That, we can afford,” Ncamana said.
On Saturday, the home held a vegetable market and bake sale to raise funds for the home, and they made R5770.
The eThekwini Municipality had not responded to queries at the time of publication.
If the community wants to help the home pay off the debt, they can pay money straight to the municipality.
The reference is: Malvern Children’s Home
eThekwini Municipality account number: 71573300136
Daily News