More ratepayers to turn to courts, to hold municipalities accountable

South Africa’s courts may have to brace themselves for an increase in South Africans frustrated by dysfunctional municipalities, turning to the legal system to resolve issues of utilities cutting services due to un-serviced debt.

This warning was issued by tax lobby group Outa, which has issued a call to ratepayers to force municipalities to account for where their rates and taxes are going.

This after the debt-crippled Mangaung Metro Municipality in the Free State, which includes Bloemfontein, recently became the latest municipality to confirm service cuts as a result of municipal debt. On Monday the Free State metro said bulk water provider, Bloem water, had implemented a reduction of supply to the Metro, resulting in a decreased supply of 30% to Bloemfontein as well as surrounding towns such as Botshabelo and Thaba Nchu.

Mangaung’s financial woes are not an isolated occurrence though.

In August the South Gauteng High Court granted Standerton residents relief and instructed that their electricity be reconnected by Eskom, following the utility implementing load reduction to the area as a result of a R1.1 billion debt to the power utility.

This ruling followed the Lekwa Ratepayers Association taking Eskom, the Lekwa Municipality, National Energy Regulator (Nersa), the Minister of Energy, Premier of Mpumalanga, and the MEC of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGta) to court, arguing that the metro’s failure to manage its finances should not be resident’s cross to bear.

According to OUTA spokesperson Wayne Duvenhage, as municipalities continue to buckle under the ravages of depleted and mismanaged funds, ratepayers are likely to start looking for ways to legally or illegally withhold their monies from corrupt municipalities, and bid to pay for services directly to utilities.

“We’re going to see more of this when municipalities do fall short on delivering services due to maladministration and corruption. And more and more citizens and ratepayers associations are compiling cases in court,” said Duvenhage.

When a high court disbanded the Makhanda Municipality in the Eastern Cape this year, at the request of residents, he says, a clear message was being sent to defaulting municipalities that their debt crises would not be allowed to become the responsibility of rate and tax paying citizens.

“I think you’re going to find more and more as these municipalities become defunct and people are starting to do it now legally through the courts, as well as illegally by withholding payment on rates and taxes, and going about trying to pay their electricity directly while some have gone off grid. The puzzle is really that the whole funding model in South Africa leaves a lot at risk as a result of the administration being corrupt and the misuse of ratepayers funds.”

A recent Auditor General report on municipalities’ finances found that 80% of them were financially mismanaged.  This, Duvenhage warned could lead to a drop in the standard of services like sewage service and the maintenance of roads.

Even in relatively thriving municipalities, like the City of Johannesburg, increased delays in services were evident in the rising number of potholes, broken infrastructure, and uncollected garbage in once cleaner streets.

“What we need more of and you will find, is that OUTA is going to be driving a number of projects to get ratepayers to participate in their public engagements sessions in council with the integrated development plan and they way the budgets are compiled and spent. There is a big call to go towards zero-budgeting. There is a call from residents to allow no more salary increases, because officials at local government level are being overpaid and delivering poorly. And then just the concern that a large proportion of their budgets is spent on salaries and that is just unacceptable.”

– Simnikiweh@citizen.co.za

For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.