How is your MID levy calculated?
Take a look at your Municipal Invoice – you will notice a section IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT which shows exactly how your levy is calculated:
Your house value x 0.00084700 ÷ 365 x days per month
In a fairly typical property scenario in Muizenberg this means that your contribution to MID costs under R5 per day as shown (many properties in Muizenberg are valued at less than R2 million rand by the City):
What is your R5 paying for?
Muizenberg Improvement District strives to improve the district, not for its own sake, but for YOU!
As you can see in the infographic above a large portion is spent on Public Safety – 2 patrollers are on active duty in the area 24/7 and respond to over 300 safety incidents each month with the support of a 24/7 patrol vehicle. They can be called on 060 850 6260 – read the Public Safety FAQ to get an idea of the scope of their work, and take a look at the Public Safety Reports to see what they deal with each month – these actually make for rather interesting reading (there is a lot going on in the area that one does not necessarily hear about!). In addition MID is an active supporter of the neighbourhood watch MCSI.
A considerable amount of the budget is spent on additional Cleansing Services and Environmental Upliftment. The City’s Solid Waste Department only covers the Beachfront and Main Road areas – and so our top-up cleaning and litter collection services ensure that ALL streets are services once per week – in a typical summer month this team collects up to 1700 bags of litter and sand! But it’s not all about keeping order, it’s also about beautifying our spaces, and this team also maintains a variety of public space gardens around Muizenberg.
And then finally, MID employs a part-time Social Worker who offers social work services, with the support of two fieldworkers, to the homeless in the MID area. Facilitating the often difficult process of accessing City and Government services that can provide assistance such as shelters, rehabilitation programs, Home Affairs services and job opportunities. On average the social worker sees around 25 people per month. Note that the social work open door service is open to anyone in need, hours are every Thursday from 09:00 – 13:00. This social development service of the MID also assist with Joint interventions such as the recent operation that resulted in 7 street children being placed at a secure childcare facility through Department of Social Development.
None of this good work happens without strong leadership: the MID Board is staffed entirely by volunteers elected at the AGM, and they do not receive any remuneration for the work they do. But MID does employ a full-time manager and her role is not only to co-ordinate and ensure service delivery, but also to liaise with the City on improvement opportunities (for example management of the beachfront parking area, promoting Muizenberg as a universal access area, and many more). The Management category also, however, includes all the things it takes to keep any enterprise running: bookkeeping, audit, banking, depreciation, office equipment and maintenance, printing, postage, advertising, marketing, and so on. The management team is engaged throughout the year with the City, Law Enforcement, SAPS, the Department of Social Development, and a variety of NGO’s to deal with issues as they come up, co-ordinate efforts between various organizations to strive for the best outcome, and to find new ways of innovating and improving and growing Muizenberg into a top destination.
We look forward to reflecting on the changes implemented in the 2017 budget year at the AGM in November.