Taxpayers union wants to ‘privatise’ sewerage works

The National TaxPayers Union (NTPU) intends to take over dysfunctional sewerage works from municipalities and run them privately. NTPU chairperson Jaap Kelder said sewerage works aren’t being managed effectively and sewerage is being pumped into rivers at an alarming rate.
“This not only poses a dire health threat, but is also impacting on South African agriculture,” Kelder said. “Irrigation water is being polluted by the raw sewerage, which contaminates agricultural produce and impacts on international trade. Recently we had an incident where the EU sent back a consignment of contaminated table grapes.”
The NTPU is currently assessing the state of sewerage works all over the country. “Where access is possible, we enter and conduct a survey of what needs to be done,” he explained. “If we have money available, we just tackle the job at hand. But the fact is that infrastructure has been neglected in every town we’ve visited so far.”
Civic opposition to poor service delivery is mounting, Kelder added. “Tax and residents associations have declared disputes with municipalities in 40 towns and cities. In more than 20 of these, the taxpayers are withholding rates and taxes of between R10 million and R20 million. The money is being kept in trust until the disputes are resolved. In some instances, these organisations and private service providers have actually taken over some of the municipal tasks.”
Of the towns which declared disputes, 23 are in the Free State and Northern Cape. The 12 Free State towns are Bethlehem, Frankfort, Hennenman, Ventersburg, Welkom, Deneysville, Edenville, Heilbron, Kroonstad, Oranjeville, Villiers and Smithfield.
The Northern Cape towns are Barkly-West, Delportshoop, Warrenton, Windsorton, Carnavon, Sutherland, Williston, Britstown, Colesberg, De Aar and Hanover.
“Everything we’re doing is well within the confines of the law,” Kelder stressed. “We’re acting according to the constitution and we stand by our human rights. We’ve been known to wake up mayors, municipal managers and other officials in the middle of the night to connect services which were discontinued because we withheld our rates and taxes. And we challenge anybody to prove that we’re contravening any laws.” – Annelie Coleman