N WATERSKEIDING VIR DIE REGTE VAN BELASTINGBETALERS

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As elke belastingbetaler in Suid-Afrika R20 per jaar, of R100 vooruit vir vyf jaar, tot hierdie kernsaak bydra, dan sou dit genoeg wees om die beste regsverteenwoordiging te verseker. Dit sal die beste belegging wees wat enige belastingbetaler ooit kan maak want dit kan die toekomstige wangebruik van belastingbetalersgeld deur plaaslike owerhede aanspreek. Enige individu, organisasie of burgerlike entiteit wat graag die NBU wil ondersteun, moet asseblief kontak maak met hul plaaslike belastingbetalersvereniging wat op hulle beurt weer kontak kan maak met mnr Jaap Kelder, voorsitter van die NBUby info@zanli.co.za Enigiemand wat direkte bydraes tot die NBU wil maak, kan hul skenkings deponeer in die bankrekening van die NBU: Eerste Nasionale Bank, Rekeningnommer 6211 203 4921, tesame met hulle naam en dorp as verwysing. Media Release issued by the National Tax-payers Union April 28 th 2009 A WATERSHED FOR THE RIGHTS OF RATEPAYERS It is a well-known fact that service delivery is close to collapse in most municipal districts in South Africa. It has also been believed that there is little or nothing that the ordinary ratepayer or taxpayer can do about this. This is about to change.. Over the last few years, twenty one towns have embarked on a proactive action where they have paid their municipal rates into a trust account . Another 230 towns are in the process of implementing the same action. The withholding of the monies was done under the common law principle of “ contractus non adempleti “ ie. where one party to a contract does not perform the other party does also not need to perform while the undertaking of the services by the residents themselves was done under the common law principle of “negotiorum gestio” where, when the owner of a property does not maintain a property, the tenant ( residents) can maintain the property and recover the costs from the owner However, these actions are about to be put to the test. The North- West Province town of Sannieshof, where services collapsed completely two years ago, declared a formal dispute with their council in November 2007, notified the municipalitythat certain residents would be paying their rates into a trust account, and in accordance with the dispute, waited on the municipality to rectify matters. When the municipality after a given time period failed to respond, the tax payers started implementing the services themselves by utilizing the withheld funds. The guiding force behind this dispute and protest action has been the National Taxpayers Union (NTU). The success story of Sannieshof – where the town services function appreciably better than they did under municipal supervision - has made the town the poster-child for civil action. The municipal council of Sannieshof, instead of working towards improving defective municipal services, has instead decided that it will take the matter of municipal disputes to court. The ruling in this case will decide for once and for all if pro-active action by ratepayers is legal under South African law. It must be stressed that country wide citizen actions in withholding funds have
never been tested in a court before, and the outcome of this case is going to have a profound effect on municipalities across the country. If the Sannieshof council wins the case, it means that rate and taxpayers in South Africa have no legal recourse against poor or non-existent service delivery. If the Sannieshof residents, backed by the National Taxpayers Union, win the case, it means that all citizens of South Africa can legitimately withhold their rates from municipalities if they are not happy with the way their towns or cities are being run. As can be seen, the ramifications are immense. The Sannieshof council will, ironically, be using tax-payers money to fight this case against tax payers. The NTU will be fighting this case using money raised from people who believe in civil liberty. It is vitally important that all ratepayers’ associations, citizen organisations and private individuals support the NTU in this test case. If every ratepayer in South Africa donated R20 per annum or R100 for a five year membership towards this pivotal matter, it will provide the funding to ensure the best legal representation possible. That contribution will be the best investment that a ratepayer can ever make, as it could prevent future abuses of ratepayers’ money by local municipalities. Any individuals, organisations or civil bodies who wish to support the NTU in this crucial test action must please contact their local ratepayers associations who can in turn contact NTU chairman Jaap Kelder at info@zanli.co.za Anybody wishing tocontribute directly to the NTU can pay their donations directly into the bank account of the National Tax Payers Union , First National Bank, Account number 6211 203 4921 with their name and town as a reference.
Page 1: Media-vrystelling deur die Nasional

N WATERSKEIDING VIR DIE REGTE VAN BELASTINGBETALERS

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