220 towns withholding taxes

I suppose another way to kill a snake [read: ANC] is to stop feeding it. I can see this having the potential to spread.

About 220 towns are withholding their municipal taxes due to poor service delivery, the National Taxpayers Union (NTU) said.

NTU board member Jaap Kelders said towns were fed up with potholes, water interruptions, inadequate waste removal and overgrown bushes on the side of the road and therefore opted to "withhold" their municipal taxes until the services were provided.

"It is not a tax boycott...we're withholding the money. It's very important to make that distinction.

"The residents pay the amount due into a trust account and the money will be paid to the municipalities once the grievances have been sorted," he said.

Paid into a fund
Kelder said the initiative, undertaken by rate payers associations in various towns, began in 2005 with residents declaring formal disputes with their municipalities over poor service delivery.

The municipal taxes are paid into a fund run by the rate payers association or legal trust accounts.

"It will go on as long as services are not delivered," Kelder said.

In some towns residents began carrying out various municipal functions themselves.

"If they still don't perform, the residents do it themselves," he said.

Asked how municipalities could perform when they were not being paid, Kelder said: "They had the money to do it, but it wasn't done. First deliver and then we will pay.

Go into partnership
"It's going on four years and only now we are getting a response from government."

Government had recently responded to the resident's grievances in the form of intervention by the national treasury, he said.

The SA Local Government Association on Thursday urged communities to go into partnership with their municipalities in order to improve service delivery, rather than withholding their taxes.

A spokesperson said: "We encourage everyone to go into partnership with municipalities to improve service delivery. All municipalities have public partnership programmes in place... but withholding rates cripple the municipalities even further. They need money to improve and sustain service delivery," he said.