“To say that electricity tariffs increased by 7% is ridiculous. The increase has been 30 to 40% because the municipality did not correct their electricity reading system before implementing the new sliding-scale tariffs.”

This was the response of the Soutpansberg Ratepayers Association (SRPA) with regard to the Makhado Municipality’s new electricity billing system. They added that the municipality was making a mockery of the new scales by reading electricity consumption once in two months. As a result, consumers have a very high reading, which places them in the most expensive bracket of the new system.

“We shall insist that the electricity be billed correctly,” said the chairperson of the Soutpansberg Ratepayers Association, Ms Inga Gilfillan. Media queries on the same topic posed to the Makhado Municipality on 5 August have not been answered as yet.

The 7% electricity increase was announced by the mayor of the Makhado Municipality, Cllr David Mutavhatsindi, in his annual budget speech on 29 June in Vuwani.

The SRPA also responded to several issues mentioned in the address.

“We cannot afford to fold our arms and leave our town dilapidated. Remember, our town is the main source of income and we need to continue improving it, so that it can help us develop other areas,” the mayor said in his speech, referring to Makhado (Louis Trichardt).

The Soutpansberg Ratepayers Association (SRPA) responded by saying that there was no indication that enough money was being spent on preventing dilapidation in town. “No specific mention was made of maintenance of  the existing electricity network and maintenance in general,” said Gilfillan.

Concerning the streets in town, some streets such as Ruh Street have totally crumbled and are not mentioned anywhere in this year or next year’s budget.

The SRPA does not agree with the mayor’s announcement that they had met most of their obligations. “According to our observations, not even a small percentage of the obligations have been met,” said Gilfillan.

Concerning the mayor’s referral to crime, the SRPA said that farm attacks were not mentioned. “Farm attacks are a reality in our country and have not been openly condemned,” Gilfillan said. The mayor lauded the doing away of the “willing-buyer-willing-seller” principle in land redistribution and expressed his thanks to the ANC delegates who “at the Mangaung conference found it befitting that owners cannot continue to negotiate what was stolen from them”.  The SRPA said that these types of political statements created a climate for crime and land grabbing.

Communication remains a thorn in the flesh for the SRPA. “Of the 300 letters written by the SRPA to the municipality, we received 16 written answers,” they said, referring to the fact that it was said in the address that the municipality took communication very seriously. 

Gilfillan questions the Makhado Municipality’s understanding of the concept “public participation”. “Recently, a representation of the SRPA visited the director of planning and development and members of the delegation were told to leave the room, so that the director could talk to the members one on one. That is not public participation,” Gilfillan said.

The SRPA, along with the DA, condemned the statement “We intend to freeze all accounts for all residence[sic] in R293 townships as a way of enabling them to start paying from the first of August …” Gilfillan said that the SRPA would like a clarification of that statement. “Why doesn’t the municipality just exercise normal credit control measures?” Gilfillan asked.