A strong suggestion came from a taxpayer that an ombudsman secretariat should be established to address complaints of municipal taxpayers.

The Makhado Municipality was approached for comment on the idea of establishing an ombudsman and several questions were put in writing, directed to Council PRO, Mr Peter Muleya. On September 6, Mr Muleya responded by asking what the meaning of an ombudsman was and also requested the Zoutpansberger on the same day to put the “question in an understandable form.”

An ombudsman can be described as the citizen’s defender or a representative of the people. The ombudsman has been referred to as “the angel of negotiations and peaceful solutions,” says Mr Pieter Botes who came up with the suggestion of having an ombudsman helping to resolve complaints of municipal ratepayers.

“Any difficulty between two parties, whether economical or political, can be quickly analyzed in detail and solved in a friendly way to the satisfaction of both parties. The om-budsman does the analyzing, gives the best solution and supervises the process until satisfaction is reached,” Mr Botes said. Weak links not performing in line with Batho Pele principles can be replaced immediately without any racial, political or gender prejudice.

“Even President Thabo Mbeki’s Africa Renaissance ideology is based on the principle of the ombudsman,” says Mr Botes. In South Africa, it is used widely. There are, amongst others, the Life Assurance Ombudsman, the Banking Ombudsman, Short-Term Insurance Ombudsman, the Pension Funds Adjudicator, the FAIS (Financial Advisory and Intermediary) Ombudsman, the Tax ombudsman and the UIF ombudsman.

Mr Botes says an ombudsman to solve municipal taxpayers’ problems could indeed prove to be an angel of peaceful solutions.