Apology – last week’s newsletter suffered a formatting glitch that rendered it almost unreadable. Copies of past newsletters have been placed on the website.
• In case you missed it last week, please join the SA Ratepayers Facebook group: http://www.facebook.com/search/?q=taxpayers&init=quick#!/group.php?gid=372830810387&ref=search&sid=568424523.2514304017..1
• Breaking news from Pietermaritzburg: the city was placed under administration, and the administrator is talking tough. He has said that he found an administration that was rotten to the core, and that officials might not get salaries this month as ordinary workers will need to be paid first. There are calls to fire these officials, but instead the MEC has asked them all to resign. This is problematic, as a resigned official can immediately walk into another job. Officials guilty of mismanagement might be asked to refund the municipality out of their own pockets, especially with regard to abuse of cell-phones and computers. So – it can be done! The only pity is that is requires a municipality to collapse completely before there is intervention. This is why ratepayers associations are so important – they can get problems noticed before a municipality hits bottom.
• It’s not official, but Minister for Co-operative Governance Sicelo Shiceka has announced in today’s newspaper that he is prepared to work with the NTU on a few pilot towns to see if a new system of co-operative government will work. There are apparently some hitches to the agreement that are holding up progress, but it is hoped that these can be resolved. It is will be interesting to see how these towns fare under a new system!
• Another reminder to ratepayers that knowing the law is your best weapon against dysfunctional municipalities. The Property Rates Act, The Municipal Systems Act, and the Municipal Finance Management Act are very good pieces of legislation to get to know. Here’s another one: The Occupation Health and Safety Act contains much information to hold municipalities to account. According to Occupational Professional Dirk Niesing, Section 16 (application of the law by the Municipal Manager); Section 9 (which sets out that a municipality may not undertake activities which hold dangers for non-employees – in other words, ordinary residents may not be endangered by municipal operations such as roadworks, potholes, electrical installations, dangerous drinking water, fencing, open manholes, crumbling pavements, faulty sewage works. The pumping of raw sewage into streams, therefore, therefore, can fall under this law as well); Section 37 covers the work of contractors as well; Section 32 compels a municipality to conduct a formal investigation in the case of death, injury or damage to property as a result of municipal activities. You can contact Dirk at 083 – 635-2912 or info@safetywise.co.za
• A quick update on the vd Merwe case of last week – it has emerged that if you have been paying rates and services for two years, the municipality cannot sue you for a debt incurred before that. The vd Merwes are preparing, with the NTU’s help, to fight the municipality on this debt. They have several precedents in their favour.
• Support from an unexpected quarter: COSATU in the North-West are calling for the removal of the mayor and all the councilors in Madibeng (Hartebeespoort Dam), blaming their ‘dirty political agenda’ for the chaos in the council. COSATU also blames officials for all the corruption in the North West that is hampering service delivery. It might be worthwhile for ratepayers to liaise with COSATU to find out how they can co-ordinate their efforts. This would certainly go a long way towards de-racialising rates and services issues. COSATU’s provincial secretary in NW is Solly Phetoe. A further news report states that the Madibeng council might face legal action over their negligence in allowing the pollution of Hartebeespoort Dam. Letter sent to the North West premier, requesting urgent action regarding the complete collapse of service delivery in this area, have been ignored. This is despite threats from communities that they will demonstrate and protest during the World Cup. In further controversy, the provincial government has paid more than R70 million for work on roads that has not been satisfactorily completed.
• Several municipalities are about to be delimited – in other words, they might have their boundaries changed. This is a normal process, as in a dynamic society ward demographics change all the time. However, there is a suspicion that some of these war boundaries might be changed in order to submerge minority groups into larger groups so that the ANC can continue to win local elections ie. political gerrymandering. If this is the case, there is a piece of legislation that might be helpful in protesting against this. It has been placed on the website, named Ward Delimitations: Legal Provisions.
• Umbilo Ratepayers Association in Durban is considering a class action suit against the Ethekwini Municipality for damages resulting from a poorly-guarded electrical sub-station, where cables are regularly stolen. The power surges after the problem is fixed have destroyed many appliances. The residents might want to look at the Occupational Safety legislation as well, for more ammunition.
• Rates arrears (not including rates paid into trust accounts, and used to provide services) have now risen to more than 2% of South Africa’s Gross Domestic Product, a rise of more than 5% from last year. This is according to economist Mike Schussler, who says this is an unsustainable situation. The only municipality that has managed to decrease its debt book is Johannesburg, but it still has outstanding debt of R9 billion. Most municipalities write off their outstanding debt every year, regarding it as unrecoverable, but this is placing an unfair burden on households that do pay their rates. This phenomenon (of writing off annual debt by municipalities) has made South Africa the largest welfare state in the world, according to Schussler. Rates defaulters across South Africa owe their municipalities a total of R56 billion. KZN’s municipal debt is R7 billion, which will have to be written off as it is unrecoverable. 11 municipalities in KZN did not manage to recover any rates at all. Of all municipal income the MEC for Finance of KZN expressed concern that only 8% of income was spent on repairs and maintenance, well below the recommended minimum of 25%.
• A Phalaborwa court issued an interdict to the municipality, compelling it to re-connect electricity disconnected as a result of a dispute over municipal accounts. Five separate court cases were successful; costs were awarded to the residents. If anyone would like more information about these successful court cases, contact Roelf du Plooy – his number is under Contacts on the website. It is important to note here that EVERY SINGLE court case against the disconnection of electricity in the case of a dispute has been successful – there is now overwhelming evidence that it is illegal to disconnect electricity if a dispute has been declared. Kroonstad has also had one success after another – for those faced with similar issues, the court judgments are available. Send me a request via e-mail and I will send them to you.
• Electricity in South Africa is no longer cheap: not only is Eskom hiking tariffs, but municipalities are allowed to place surcharges on the electricity they supply to the consumer. In some cases, municipalities make half of their income from this surcharge. RAs should keep an eye on the premium charged by their councils, to make sure that they are not excessive. You can get guidelines for surcharges from Eskom.
• The environmental group WESSA reacted to evidence that the Springs municipality was pumping raw sewage into the Blesbokspruit, a RAMSAR site and declared wetland. Photographic evidence is supporting the action they are taking against the municipality.
• An NTU member defied threats of arrest to fix the potholes in the road outside his property. Pierre Bouwer studied the correct way to fix potholes, bought the material and fixed the potholes, despite threats from the municipality to arrest him if he went ahead. Bouwer says that the potholes have not been merely filled with gravel, but properly repaired. He challenges others to do the same.
• 19 out of the 29 municipalities of the Northern Cape could not be audited in this last financial year because their finances were so chaotic. Others were problematic and only two (Kareeberg and Frances Baard) got unqualified audit reports. However, if this is placed in context, the Northern Cape is the only province in South Africa where more than one municipality got an unqualified audit report! Auditor-General Terence Nobembe said that senior government leaders should visit municipalities more regularly in an oversight role. Here is a good idea of ratepayers associations: request a visit from your MEC to oversee the work of your municipality. If each RA could keep an eye on its town’s books (which is well within its mandate) then these problems could be anticipated and prevented. Most of the problems, said NC premier Hazel Jenkins, was that municipalities appointed financial managers without the necessary qualifications. This is also something that ratepayers can keep an eye on – ask for your financial manager’s qualifications. If they do not have adequate qualifications, then they have been illegally appointed.
• Cape Town has requested national intervention to prevent illegal electricity connections. If you want to know more about this, as ratepayers, contact the Cape Town manager of Infrastructure and Electricity Services, Marius v Westhuizen at 084 – 645-1261
• The Municipal Systems Act is being revised, with the amendments before Parliament at the moment in order to be gazetted by the end of April. Here are some of the changes proposed: officials must comply with the qualifications necessary for their jobs; councilors who appoint unqualified staff will have to pay the contract damages out of their own pockets; officials are not allowed to occupy senior political positions; managers found guilty of fraud or corruption will be suspended without salary; managers who face disciplinary action, may not be redeployed or resign; there will be better supervision of salaries. Comment: some of these amendments might be in conflict with our labour laws, so this is an interesting development! Let’s see who wins this round.
• A news story has named Lichtenburg as the town in South Africa with the most potholes on a street-percentage basis (100%). The town also has problems with municipal accounts, where amounts on the accounts are clearly wrong but the municipality insists on being paid before they investigate.
• Here is an official list of town councils who are guilty of polluting their water supply: http://www.pmg.org.za/node/18256
• Caliltzdorp (Kannaland) which is busy with a dispute and with-holding action, issues a regular bulletin about their ratepayer issues. If you would like to receive this bulletin, please contact Hennie Smit at mailto:marasmit@absamail.co.za
• If you would like to be placed on this mailing list, please send a request to nicolettebrandt007@gmail.com
Tags: Ratepayers