Farmers in Swartruggens, North West, are seriously considering withholding payment of their municipal rates, due to services not rendered and depositing the money into a trust fund instead, that will be paid over to the local municipality when the problems are addressed.
The farming community did the same in 2005 when they withheld their municipal payments for two years and nine months. This amounted to over R2 million before an agreement was reached and the money transferred to the municipality. Musina farmers are also fed up with their local municipality after not receiving any services, for which they have been paying during the past seven months. According to the chairperson of the Linton Agricultural Union in Musina, Magiel Nel, the farmers were charged with fighting fires by the municipal fire brigade, but still have to pay municipal rates for this service. He added that the municipality had also failed to uphold an agreement not to charge farmers interest for at least six months and hadn’t conducted an impact study to determine the effect property rates would have on the farming community. Farmers were considering withholding their rates until such a study was done.
Chairperson of TAU SA’s local government committee Ben Marais said about 25 communities under local municipalities have complained about poor service delivery and are also considering withholding rates payments until the problems are addressed. TAU SA general manager Bennie van Zyl said his organisation didn’t have a problem with what the farmers were doing. “People should do the work they are paid to do. It’s good to put some positive pressure on the municipalities,” he said. – David Steynberg
