The ratepayers of the Makhado Municipality have rejected the municipal budget as presented to the public on May 20 as well as the final budget as presented at the gala event on May 30.

The objections leading to the rejection of the budget by the Soutpansberg Rate Payers Association (SRPA) include three issues.

* There were unacceptable figures in the draft budget that were questioned but those figures were changed in the final budget to even more unacceptable figures.

* How can a final budget be approved if the total income is not yet known? This refers to the thorny property rates and taxes issue.

* The SRPA does not accept the "so-called" consultation meetings concerning the budget and IDP, "since no consultation or deliberation took place."

Starting with the last issue, the SRPA said that, at the meetings, documentation was made available just before the meeting commenced.

"Complaint after complaint is falling on deaf ears. The same phenomenon is true for every municipal ‘participatory’ meeting. At every meeting, people present request that documents should be made available at least a week before the date of the meeting, to enable everybody to study the documents and be able to participate meaningfully. It seems that the municipality is trying to force decisions through as quickly as possible without participation," state the ratepayers in a letter to the municipal manager, dated May 28. Other complaints include meetings that do not commence at the advertised time, short notice of meetings and the problem that ratepayers were not afforded the opportunity to raise their concerns and objections.

Concerning the unknown factor in the budget, namely the income from property rates and taxes, the SRPA does not approve of a budget finalised with inadequate information. The decision was that, as soon as errors had been rectified, the new property rates and taxes would be implemented, where residential properties would be taxed at R0.005 cent in the rand, business and industrial properties at R0.0075 cent in the rand and farms at R0.00125 cent in the rand. The SRPA wants to know whether these rates are going to be implemented without participatory meetings. "We are not interested in ‘information’ meetings," they state clearly.

The SRPA is also concerned about the 6 000 to 7 000 properties on the valuation roll of 2008/9 where the ratepayers are without addresses and want an explanation on how these rates, taxes and service charges will be collected.

"Amounts in the budget that was presented to the public on May 20 were changed completely in the final budget," said Mr Herman Smith, chairperson of the SRPA this week.

"Why were rates and taxes increased from R13,4m as presented to the Rate Payers on May 20 to R19,6m in the final budget? A sudden increase of R6,2m or 46%, without any explanation whatsoever," asks the SRPA.

"Salaries and wages increased from R110 201 000 to R131 552 000, an increase R21 351 000 or 19%. Please explain this unexplained, unreported deviation," is asked in a letter to the municipality.

The 20% increase of the councillors’ remuneration elicited a negative response from the SRPA.

"Council members are being paid for wasting time. Should councillors not be endeavouring to better the living conditions of all the people in the jurisdiction of the Makhado Municipality?"

Another question reads: "Could you explain how ‘Other Income’ will increase from R18,3m in 2007/8 to R71m in 2008/9, a whopping 294%. Could you explain this optimistic figure, please?"

The SPRA also wants an explanation why Council’s debtors are expected to increase from R49,7m to R68,7m, an increase of R19m or roughly 38%.

Repairs and Maintenance that have increased by 33% from R20m to R30m came under severe criticism from the SRPA.

"What can the municipality accomplish with R30m? The previous small amounts spent on this aspect were the main reason for the infrastructure collapse and caused the present dilapidated state of affairs," says the SRPA. The R16m allocated for the repair of the streets of Louis Trichardt is enough for 16km.

"What do you envisage will happen to all the other streets during the next year? When you eventually wake up, it will cost R10m per kilometre to rebuild the road from scratch," said the SRPA.

In the meantime, the SRPA advised its members to sue Council for damage and neglect of graveyards, which caused an outcry from the community. The municipal manager was notified accordingly in the same letter that contains all the budget concerns and questions.