** Press release **

Press Release
Issued by the National Taxpayers Union
August 3rd 2008

PEOPLE ARE DOING IT FOR THEMSELVES

The collapse in the supply of services of the local governments of many
rural towns in South Africa has led to a unique phenomenon - the ratepayers
of those towns have taken on their municipalities and, in some cases, are
supplying the services themselves. They have cited health and safety
reasons as factors that have forced them to take action.

The National Tax-payers Union (NTU) is ruffling feathers in government
because under-performing councils are being taken to task. The
organization, which stresses that it is non-political and represents all
tax-paying citizens, is dedicated to educating taxpayers of their rights.
Support for the organization is growing in leaps and bounds as more and more
towns join the list of irate communities demanding service delivery.

Government reaction has been unfortunate. Even though they themselves admit
that they are failing in service delivery they have chosen to attack the
taxpayers. Northern Cape Premier Dipeo Peters accused the NTU of being a
shadowy front for an unnamed political party, despite the fact that Peters
herself has been petitioned directly by this organization to improve service
delivery in Northern Cape towns.

Her accusation followed a demonstration in Colesberg that turned violent.
The Colesberg Ratepayers Association had undertaken a dispute with the
Colesberg over poor service delivery. The Municipality responded by calling
for a boycott of businesses owned by ratepayers. The local SANCO then
organized a march through the town to demonstrate against the rates dispute,
but the march turned violent and the police were forced to intervene.

Colesberg Ratepayers Association Chairman Johan Matthee said: "We have
tried everything in our power to engage with the council.
They have ignored our letters. We have held meetings with them but there is
still no improvement in service delivery. They have prevented us from
expressing our dissatisfaction with the poor level of service. In Colesberg
we have no water for two to three days at a time, power outages due to poor
maintenance, etc."

"We have tried to engage with the people in the township as well, as we know
that they are just as unhappy over poor service delivery as we are. We were
even forced to apply for a court order to have the electricity supply
restored to a consumer in the township whose supply was pre-paid. But they
have told us that they have been threatened - if they come to our meetings
their houses will be burned down."

Colesberg is not the only town that has taken a firm stand against a lack of
service delivery. Altogether 30 ratepayers associations have currently
called a dispute with their councils, and several have actually begun to
engage private contractors to provide the services that the municipalities
are not able to provide.

Peters, while condemning the violent behaviour of the protesters, said that
ratepayers organizations were unnecessary because there were mechanisms
within government that dealt with service delivery problems. She said that
the timing of the rise of citizen organizations was worrying given the
proximity of elections next year.

But NTU spokesman Jaap Kelder has strongly denied that the NTU has any
political agenda. "This organization is all about problems in
municipalities. Local government is failing the people, and these
mechanisms that are supposed to address problems are not working. A
rate-payers association is the voice of dissatisfied residents, not
political smokescreens. In fact, people do not want to work through
political parties because the minority parties are helpless and the majority
parties don't listen."

The NTU has called upon the Premier of the Northern Cape to assist with
service delivery instead of trying to divert attention away from the real
problems that exist.

....ends/

For further information or comment, please contact Jaap Kelder at +2783 -
208-9314

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this is a letter from Niki Moore
7th Avenue Communications
P O Box 1203
Hillcrest 3650;
Telephone: (+2731) 762-1419;
Cell: +2783 - 758-4483
Skype: niki.moore