The Makhado Municipality has at last broken the silence and lack of comment following the threat of the ratepayers to resort to mass action.

The municipal statement dated August 17 is short and of a general nature.

“Every person in South Africa has a right to a peaceful protest or mass action, as long as this is done within the confines of the law of the country. So the SRPA is no exception in this case. However, our doors are always open to engage with them on any meaningful discussion,” reads the statement.

The Soutpansberg Ratepayers Association (SRPA), however, said that discussions were never meaningful and they complained about the administrative incapability of the municipality.

“They have never, ever engaged in any meaningful discussion. The municipality can always start by answering our 80 plus letters that we wrote about service delivery,” the SRPA Chairperson, Mr Frans Prinsloo, said.

The Down Town Rate Payers Association strongly supports and actually initiated the idea of mass action. Their feeling is that you can write all the letters you want and hold all the meetings you want, but, at some stage, frustrations of taxpayers have to be channelled “before they resort to the burning down of municipal property and destroying of councillors’ houses”.

It is expected that the taxpayers will soon come up with a date for the mass action.