The war of words between the Soutpansberg Ratepayers Association (SRPA) and the Makhado Municipality is heating up.

The SRPA decided in August last year, after years of trying to get the municipality to improve service delivery, to declare a formal dispute with the municipality. Additionally, as a result of the lack of progress in getting a satisfactory response in terms of viable plans with timelines and budgets, its members have decided to withhold rates and taxes from the beginning of March this year.

The municipal manager, Ms Faith Muthambi, sent a letter to the management of the SRPA this week, in which she questions their motives and accuses them of acting in bad faith by distributing pamphlets containing “misleading information as if the Municipality is not doing anything, were as (sic) the leaders of the Soutpansberg Ratepayers Association had been in constant communication with the Municipality wherein regular feedbacks and progress reports were reported.” As a result, Muthambi feels compelled to review the “closer liaison mechanism between the Office of the [municipal manager] and the leadership of the Soutpansberg Ratepayers Association.” She also states that “the proposed meeting scheduled for the 20th of February 2009 will not be proceeded with.”

The spokesperson of the SRPA, Mr Herman Smith, reacted to this letter by sending her a reply in which he negates her claims. He firstly denies that any “closer liaison” was established between the SRPA and the municipality. He insists that the attempts to engage the municipality in a closer relationship over the past two years have come from the side of the association, while lamenting the fact that they were unsuccessful. He provides various examples as proof that the opposite has in fact been the case.

“The recent meeting, scheduled for January 15 could have been the vehicle to introduce a new phase in building an honest and truthful relationship between the Makhado/Vhembe municipalities and the SRPA. The SRPA was once again disappointed by the disrespect shown by our ‘close liaison’ partner(s) through the unilateral cancellation of the meeting without in-forming the SRPA. The honourable Mayor asked that respect should be shown to each other in the Zoutpansberger of February 20, but if this is the respect showed by the municipality towards their ‘closer liaison partners,’ then there is something drastically wrong,” Smith said. Scheduled meetings in 2008 between the Makhado Municipality and the SPRA were all unilaterally postponed ‘indefinitely’ by the Makhado Municipality before the first of the four meetings could even take place.

“The scheduled meetings for 2009 between the Makhado Municipality and the SRPA were suddenly called off in a letter, signed by the municipal manager and received by the SRPA at 16:45 on February 20, almost three hours after the meeting should have started,” says Smith in his reply.

Smith goes on by pointing out that the SRPA had offered its assistance, advice and support a number of times over the past years to address the challenges faced by the municipality.