The Soutpansberg Ratepayers Association (SRPA) has threatened to take their complaints to a higher authority if the provincial government is not serious in solving the deadlock between themselves and the Makhado Municipality.

The ratepayers demanded a full written report of the investigation from the Department of Local Government and Housing by September 28. No report was received.

The ratepayers had demonstrated their serious dissatisfaction with the municipality in a protest march, referred to as the rainbow protest march, since the protestors came from all community groupings and races. They wished to hand over their memorandum of grievances to the MEC, Mr Soviet Lekganyane, or his representative. No one from the department turned up to receive the memo. The hundreds of protestors were dismissed by the announcement that a meeting between the department, municipality and stakeholders would take place on September 15.

This important meeting between the department, the municipality and the SRPA turned out to be a total disaster. Instead of a prepared report, all the ratepayers got was a barrage of words and allegations were thrown back and forth.

“It was the most unsatisfactory meeting that we have ever attended,” said Mr Frans Prinsloo, chairperson of the SRPA.

“It was totally chaotic. It was like playing a rugby match against the referee who has the whistle. The department did not do any investigation or preparation for the meeting,” said Mr Herman Smith of the SPRA.

The meeting was characterised by shouting and verbal attacks on persons. It reminds of the cliché “weak point, shout harder”.

The ratepayers are of the opinion that the chairperson of the meeting, Ms Manako Makurupettje of the provincial department, allowed councillors to utter racial slurs, allowed a councillor to launch a personal attack on Mr Prinsloo, and allowed a councillor to make political statements.

The ratepayers had serious problems with the fact that Makurupettje, on behalf of the department, did not comply with the stated object of the meeting, which was to investigate and report back.

The department had previously committed itself to preparing a report on the implementation of the Property Rates Act and Valuation to be made available at the 15 September meeting. The commitment was recorded in the minutes of the meeting that took place the day prior to the protest march.

“You didn’t consider any of our complaints nor did you consult with us … You also didn’t report back on any issue connected to service delivery. You also didn’t investigate our allegations (based on the auditor general’s report) of gross mismanagement and possible fraudulent actions by municipal officials,” the SRPA wrote in a letter to the MEC, dated September 18, in which they complained about the substandard meeting. Prinsloo also asked Makurupettje to consider apologizing for the way she treated Mr Smith when he inadvertently tread on her toes by using the American-English idiom “new kid on the block,” meaning “newcomer” to welcome her.

The SRPA spelled out in their letter what they want from the department in order to move towards a solution. They wanted the department to study the SRPA’s correspondence with the Makhado Municipality, amongst others, to ask the municipality to answer to allegations and issues raised in the correspondence, and to supply the full written report on the investigation by Sep-tember 28. As stated, this did not happen.

The Department of Local Government and Housing was approached and asked why the written report was not supplied by September 28.

“The department noted the demands and allegations from the SRPA and we will look into all the issues. Once the investigation is completed, the report will be made available to all affected stakeholders. It will be expedited because of the urgency of the matter,” Mr Clayson Monyela, chief information officer of the MEC, said on September 29. Monyela said that more details would be supplied at a later stage.