A major confrontation is looming after the Makhado Municipal Council once again defied resident’s objections this week and officially accepted a highly controversial new property rates policy with potentially disastrous consequences.

The practical effect may be that an average family now paying R200 a month in tax may be forced to pay R1 500 a month under the new policy. The official decision came despite a stream of protests.

The acceptance of this policy came in total disregard of serious objections, also against Council’s failure to adhere to the consultation procedures prescribed by law:

* All Christian churchgoers in Makhado (Louis Trichardt) were deliberately excluded from the consultative process prescribed by the Municipal Property Rates Act.

* The basic language rights of Afrikaans- and English-speaking taxpayers were also pointedly ignored in “consultative” meetings which continued to be scheduled on Sunday mornings, regardless of various written objections against this blatant infringement on the religious rights of residents who practice the Christian religion.

Written objections against these intolerable violations of basic rights enshrined in the South African Constitution have been directed to local, provincial and national authorities.

Particulars of the Makhado Municipal Council’s grossly insulting attitude towards the religious and language rights of its taxpayers came to light this week, when the Chairpersons Association (CA) published the contents of correspondence to Council from various quarters which endeavoured to assist Council in conducting an acceptable process within the parameters of the law. Although receipt of all these letters was acknowledged, the contents were pointedly ignored in the further actions of Council.

The CA emphatically repeated that the said meetings are invalid for the purposes of consultation as prescribed by the Municipal Property Rates Act.

All Christian residents in the municipal area and all Afrikaans- and English-speaking taxpayers were side-lined, insulted and pointedly ignored in these “consultative” meetings scheduled by the Makhado Municipality on Sundays. Those who did attend these meetings were deliberately misled by Council’s representatives about the status of the said meetings.

Details of this gross and blatantly unlawful insensitivity are further revealed in a statement issued this week by the CA. The CA says Council’s intolerable conduct can be seen as part of a deliberate effort “to try and sneak through measures which would not be able to pass the democratic test of responsible deliberations and negotiations with all stakeholders.”

The Chairpersons’ Association, which earlier brought the whole situation to the attention of the provincial and national authorities, lashed out this week against what they consider the “arrogantly uninformed” reply by Council’s PRO, Mr. Peter Muleya, to an earlier CA statement calling for a return to lawful procedures in the important consultative process.

Muleya’s effort to affirm that all legal requirements for the consultative process have been met, is once again firmly rejected by the CA. The CA says Muleya should read the letters addressed to Council on the topic, before he engages himself in the discussion. In several letters to Council, it is specifically stated that the issue must be referred back to the Executive Committee for consideration of all objections in order to have a proper process introduced as prescribed by legislation.

Regardless of all these developments, the Makhado Municipal Council in its meeting this week accepted the highly controversial property rates draft as official policy, which implies that Council considers the requirements of the law as having been met. The CA says a major outcry can be expected when property owners wake up to the potentially devastating practical consequences of this development.