At a meeting of the Soutpansberg Ratepayers Association (SRPA) last week, the members of the association voted unanimously to continue withholding rates and taxes from the local municipality. This in spite of the threat of electricity cuts to members of the association by the municipality.

The meeting was attended by the chairman of the national ratepayers union (NRU), Mr Jaap Kelder. He gave a short address and answered some questions from the members present. He warned that service delivery in the whole country is on the verge of imploding, largely due to financial mismanagement on the part of the central and provincial governments. He compared the situation to a dam wall which will shortly overflow or break.

Kelder also indicated that, in spite of the verdict of the Court of Appeals on the Olga Rademan case in Kroonstad, which states that municipalities have the right to cut off the electricity supply of members who are paying for electricity but withholding rates and taxes, magistrate’s courts all over the country keep on granting interdicts to restore their electricity. The NRU intends to go to the Constitutional Court regarding this matter.

Kelder also stressed that the government is taking note of the disputes declared by ratepayers associations and that this is causing discomfort in government circles, despite its apparent lack of concern and the outright condemnation that such action is illegal. He mentioned that the NRU had been on the verge of signing an agreement with the local government association (SALGA), which stated that local governments and ratepayers associations would work together in addressing service delivery problems, when SALGA chose to withdraw from the process.

Another interesting point raised by Kelder was that of a canton system, such as the one employed in Switzerland. That country is divided into 26 cantons that are mostly independent, with a federal government which deals with matters pertaining to all the cantons. Each canton has its own parliament (much like our provinces) which takes decisions on how that canton is run. The government of each canton is elected by the people, not on a party-political basis, but on merit. Kelder is of the view that this system could work very well locally.

Members of the Downtown Ratepayers Association were present and made some valuable comments and recommendations on the matters addressed. The most important fact that emerged was that everyone was affected in the same way by the service delivery problems, regardless of ethnicity and geographical location.

Questions were asked about the money accumulated thus far and what to do with it, since some people are reluctant to join because they feel that the SRPA needs to use the money to address some of the problems in town. The matter was put to the vote, and once again it was decided not to use the money for a specific project, even though many problems exist. It was felt that the money held in trust provided the SRPA with some leverage for negotiation.

The meeting closed with a call by some of the members present that more members need to be enlisted to make the process more inclusive and to increase the association’s bargaining power.