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Frustrated taxpayers eye ruling

Pretoria - The Free State High Court will soon be asked to declare the legality or otherwise of withholding taxes at municipal level.

This follows pressure from Free State voters who are fed up with poor service delivery and want to ascertain from their DA councillors whether it is permissible to withhold their municipal taxes.

DA representatives in the Free State have asked the party at national level for permission to obtain a declaratory order from the Free State High Court.

The National Taxpayers Union (NTU) is currently coordinating campaigns protesting poor municipal service delivery in more than 300 towns.

The NTU campaign involves residents individually declaring disputes with their local authorities, and then withholding taxes. Members of taxpayer associations pay the tax monies into a communal, separate account and use this to provide the services themselves.

Sannieshof is the best-known example where taxpayers have repaired water pumps, the sewerage plant and potholes in the roads from this money.

According to NTU spokesperson Jaap Kelder, taxes are currently being withheld in this way in about 40 towns.

Various legal experts and Sicelo Shiceka, Minister of Cooperative Government and Traditional Affairs, have expressed reservations about the legality of this campaign.

Shiceka has threatened to take those withholding taxes to court if negotiations fail.

He said he was preparing a war room in his department, and that he would first tackle the head of the movement. He had previously told Beeld that he would fight the dissenters with their own money.

Although several related issues have already come before various courts, declarations of dispute and the withholding of taxes, as applied by the NTU, have as such never come to court.

Constitutional expert Professor Marinus Wiechers says a declaratory order by the Free State High Court would create a precedent to be followed by high courts in the other provinces.

- Sake24.com

For business news in Afrikaans, go to Sake24.com.

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