Durban — The Westville Ratepayers’ Association has decided to take the eThekwini Municipality to court to recover rates paid, which the city failed to promulgate between 2005-2009.
Westville Ratepayers’ Association exco member Rose Cortes said that since the public meeting at the Westville Civic Hall on January 29, they had actively started refining their case against the eThekwini Municipality.
“We are currently working with our legal team who are drawing up an affidavit in order to officially notify the eThekwini Municipality that they are being challenged,” said Cortes.
She said the basis of their complaint was that eThekwini failed to promulgate the metro’s rates from 2005 to 2009, thereby unlawfully billing and collecting ratepayer contributions during that period.
Cortes said: “We are embarking on established case law. This is a motion that has already been passed in the case of Koster, Derby, Swartruggens Taxpayers versus Kgetlengrivier Local Municipality. What we are doing is applying it to our area.
“There are technicalities that are not known to the average citizen, and because of this, assumptions are made that the WRA intends boycotting the city and withholding rates. In fact, our intention is to hold the municipality accountable and seek provision of services.”
Cortes said the WRA’s efforts initially started as a localised attempt to see an improvement in municipal services, but since the public meeting, this initiative had expanded exponentially to businesses, other ratepayer organisations and individuals across the city.
WRA Chairperson Asad Gaffar released a letter on Wednesday that showed what the WRA had done after their public meeting in January.
Gaffar said: “The WRA’s next course of action was to call for a meeting with the mayor and city manager of eThekwini. A mass meeting was held in March last year, attended by ratepayers across eThekwini. At that meeting, the mayor promised to treat our concerns seriously and bring about a reformation across all departments, with a view to improving service delivery.
“Our monthly meetings with the city have collapsed. They have been abandoned by eThekwini Municipality, citing frivolous reasons and excuses. From the beginning, there’s been no chairperson available and no equipment to host the online meeting, to the reports that are ‘not yet ready for discussion’. Our questions are still awaiting answers,” he said.
Gaffar said the city has major concerns such as potholes, overgrown verges, water leaks, blocked and polluted rivers, broken sewerage systems and faulty street lights.
“All these issues keep getting worse. We are basically a city in the dark,” he said.
MW Joosub Attorneys provided a legal opinion with regards to this matter, and afterward the WRA was advised to seek a declaratory order.
“Our legal team has been hard at work preparing for this, and we look forward to keeping everyone advised,” Gaffar said.
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