Protestors from all over the municipal area will march on August 28 in what is called the Rainbow Protest March at Louis Trichardt.

The purpose of the march is to hand a memorandum of griev-ances to the MEC of Local Government and Housing, Mr Soviet Lekganyane.

The grievances revolve around a lack of proper service delivery and accountable governance by the Makhado Municipality and the unlawful implementation of the property rates policy.

The march is organised by the Soutpansberg Rate Payers Association, in association with the Down Town Citizen’s Forum, the Chairpersons Association, Chambers of Commerce, Agricultural Unions, structures of village communities and others.

The Down Town Citizen’s Forum issued a press release concerning the Rainbow Protest March.

“For 15 years, people of this municipality were so quiet and now the situation is out of control. It is now time to mobilize all the different structures and all the citizens under Makhado Municipality to stand up, voice their rights, and demand service delivery. Enough is enough! This is the people’s march and it is overdue!” states the release, emphasizing that the march will be held by all race groups.

The Forum says that lack of consultation is the major cause of problems at Makhado Municipality.

“The Council does everything it likes without consulting the ratepayers and the citizens. They impose everything on the ratepayers,” says Mr Solly Maano, Chairperson of the Down Town Citizen’s Forum.

Another cause of problems is the lack of continuity.

“In Vhembe district, the Makhado Municipality should enter the Guinness Book of Records for the highest number of mayors and municipal managers within a short space of time. This is as a result of the in-fighting between the mayor and the municipal managers. Councillors take sides and this is worsening the situation and stops service delivery. The people who are causing so many problems at the municipality are few. These people must be ‘Named and Shamed’ because the damage they are causing is destroying the municipality,” reads the statement.

Lack of communication skills and accountability were mentioned as another cause for problems.

More than one association referred to the 80+ unanswered letters that the SPRA had written to the Makhado Municipality since the declaration of the dispute on August 26 last year.

The ratepayers specifically demanded that the property rates and taxes processes must be stopped immediately and the process started afresh.

“The whole process is flawed. Proper procedures of property rates were not followed. The rate tariff of 0.005 is imposed on people. People submitted objections at the right time but all of them were ‘rejected’ and no reasons were given. Something very disturbing is that Limpopo is the second poorest province, but Makhado Municipality property rates are higher than that of Johannesburg, the city of gold. As long as the property rate tax is imposed on us like now, there will be no co-operation between the residents and the municipality,” the Down Town Forum stated.