Ratepayers can no longer sit back and watch as service delivery gets worse Photo Sowetanlive
South Africa – Whether you look at national level or local level, South Africa’s infrastructure is crumbling. While citizens don’t have much say when it comes to things nationally like Eskom, they do have a voice at local level and must use it to hold local government accountable.
This is where creating and joining a ratepayers association can help. Even though many may want to throw in the towel and leave, this isn’t a viable solution for the country or for the youth, said Imtiaz Sayed, Chairperson of eThekwini Secure. By throwing in the towel, citizens will be effectively telling government they can do as they please.
“At the end of the day for many of us that live in this country the option of leaving this country is not one that we can actually think about. Based on that, if we decide that we are going to throw in the towel where to from here and where to from here for the youth of our country at this time? We firstly need to compartmentalize issues and if we don’t do that, we’re going to end up with a country full of problems that we’re not going to be able to resolve.”
There has been a shift over the past ten years from crime being the major issue to now service delivery taking its place. This issue is one citizens can and must solve..
Coming together to demand service delivery
National and local government is failing in its duties to provide citizens with the services they pay for. While there are issues at national level, citizens must turn their attention to local issues first. Issues that impact them on a daily basis, said Sayed. These issues can be tackled together if people are willing to work together.
“Local government is where people get services delivered. Yes, provincial government exists, national government exists but those speak to things that don’t affect you daily. If everything that we had in terms of our daily lives was in order, then we’d worry about bigger hospitals, Eskom and all of these things. Currently we need to have things done at local government level and the only way to do that is to actually become a part of your ratepayers association.”
South Africa is a pro-poor country which strives to improve the lives of people. Therefore, a city often has ratepayers and non-ratepayers but there needs to be a distinct difference between the two, explained Sayed. The ratepayers must have a bigger say in how their money is being spent and must hold government accountable.
“There needs to be a definition between a ratepaying citizen and a non-rate paying citizen because one is for a paid for service and one is a non-paid for service. So by virtue of that we’re calling on everyone to form ratepayer associations voting district based and not ward based. The dynamics within each ward is very different and you’ve got to understand that if you take everybody and put them into one little organization, you’re not going to resolve any of the issues. The issues vary based on affluency, based on dynamic, based on the area, based on the type of housing in the area.”
Sayed has noticed that those who form a ratepayers association, demand their service deliveries and seek answers often do see the results they want.
SMread: The Callas Foundations Effort to End Gender-Based Violence
Providing for everyone will not work for long
While South Africa is a pro-poor country, ratepayers cannot look after non-ratepayers forever. In time, municipalities will have to raise rates and other costs to fund non-ratepayers. This will in turn make it extremely difficult for people to survive in cities as the rates will be exorbitant, stressed Sayed.
“There’s two types of expenditure that we get within municipalities. One is called operational expense and one is a capital expense. Capital expense comes in terms of funding from national and provincial government to upgrade your infrastructure, hospitals, clinics and all of those things but 73% of your operational expenditure comes directly from ratepayers. We have 595 informal settlements which currently don’t pay rates. The question I raise is who covers the services, the water that’s given free and all of that? Ultimately someone needs to be paying. Local government cannot afford to keep on burdening the ratepayer towards covering those expenses which are now becoming more and more exorbitant.”
Government must inform ratepayers how their money is being used and how much is being used. When there is no accountability, we often find huge sums of money being ‘lost’ or huge spending taking place in areas not needing such amounts.
The way forward for ratepayers
For Sayed it is all about people “tapping into things government doesn’t want them to tap into”. Forming and mobilizing small groups to get the attention of local government and demanding the services owed to them. Citizens can no longer afford to sit on the sidelines and watch their hard earned money being wasted. In the end, choosing to remain quiet causes more destruction and devastation and only hurts ratepayers in the long run.
“We need to mobilize all those paying citizens and get them together in their little bodies. It can be your street. It can be two roads, it can be five streets but get together. When you form the ratepayer association make sure you’ve got a mandate. You’ve got the electricity account numbers. You clearly understand how much each person pays towards rates … When we’re talking to rates itself, we want to be asking local government when we pay rates what are we paying for. Tell us that 70% of your rates goes towards lifesavers, Metro Police, street lighting, roads and all of that across the city but 30% needs to be spent on the street from which it is derived.”
If people were to look at their street and assess what kind of service delivery they were getting, they will find they are paying more for less, said Sayed. The government needs to be held accountable. If one won’t tolerate such from companies, then they shouldn’t tolerate the same from government.
