PHILLIP NKOSI, Nelspruit | Tuesday
MPUMALANGA’s capital city has appointed a law firm which has failed to pay its levies for six years to track down and sue rates dodgers in the new greater Mbombela municipal council.
The council is owed about R70m for services from township residents around Nelspruit, White River and Hazyview. However, law firm Du Toit-Smuts Attorneys & Notaries itself was summonsed to the local civil court last week for failing to pay over R50_000 in levies to the Ehlanzeni District Council since August 1995.
The Council, formerly known as the Lowveld and Escarpment District Council, refused to comment on the issue and insisted that it was sub judice. Du Toit-Smuts failed to return phone calls on the issue.
Mbombela council treasurer Nantes Kruger confirmed that Du Toit-Smuts had been contracted to recover debt from specifically KaNyamazane residents.
He was not aware that Du Toit-Smuts did not pay levies, but said: “I don’t think this will affect their contract at all.”
Kruger said summons had not been issued to residents for a while, so as to give them a chance to pay up.
In the past five years, rates have gone up from about R14 a month to over R100 a month in Nelspruit’s surrounding townships.
Residents of Matsulu and KaNyamazane submitted a memorandum to the city council last year demanding to pay a flat rate of R30 that would cover assessment rates, water and refuse removal. They are now being billed separately for water.
The memorandum demanded that the council break its 30-year contract with Britain’s Biwater to supply water and sewerage services in the Greater Nelspruit area.
Legal summonses issued to residents in arrears should be withdrawn immediately, the memorandum stated.
At the beginning of March Lowveld Trust Properties contracted Du Toit-Smuts to demand R140_000 in rent from the health department for a building that houses its ambulance. The rent dates back to October last year.
The department has rented the 1_400 square metre building since 1995 and is charged about R42_000 a month. – African Eye News Service
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