No, the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality will not be taxing residents’ braais anytime soon, spokesperson Mthubanzi Mniki said on Thursday.
He was responding to public outrage caused by the introduction of a R575 fee introduced by the municipality for a permit to burn garden refuse.
Mniki said apart from braai fires, wood fires made in informal settlements for cooking or heat were also exempt from the bylaw.
He said the burning of tyres was an offence that could be prosecuted in terms of the air pollution bylaw.
In terms of this law, a person can be fined R1,000 for creating a “nuisance” and R500 for burning without municipal permission.
Mniki’s comments came after residents in their numbers took to The Herald’s Facebook page asking if those who burnt tyres would also be prosecuted, and where braais fitted into the picture.The former chair of residents’ organisation Farm Comm, Willie Bosch, said he did not believe any public participation meeting was held when the permit amount – which he considers excessively high – was considered.
He said he feared that illegal burning, or the piling up of dry vegetation that was not being burnt, as well as dead trees could create a fire hazard on farms and smallholdings around Port Elizabeth.
Burn permits are issued free to members of rural areas’ volunteer fire corps in many rural areas in South Africa.
Other residents’ organisations are considering further steps against the introduction of a fee for a burn permit.
Mniki said so far 58 permits, at a total cost of more than R33,000, had been issued.
He said the cost of R575 per permit included labour costs, processing costs, equipment and travelling costs.
The municipality was obtaining a drone to police the implementation of the air pollution bylaw, he said when the permit fee was announced.
He said the Air Pollution Control Bylaw had been in operation since March 24 2010 but the tariff was only introduced in this financial year.
Protesters burning tyres without municipal consent were committing an offence in terms of the bylaw and could be fined.
But he said the metro was not about to start taxing “braai activities”.