In his 2023 State of the Nation Address, President Cyril
Ramaphosa underscored a pressing national concern: "Too many
of our municipalities, 163 out of 257, are dysfunctional or in
distress due to poor governance, ineffective and sometimes corrupt
financial and administrative management and poor service
delivery."
In response to shortcomings in municipal service delivery, a
growing trend of organised rates withholding has emerged, primarily
spearheaded by ratepayers associations. Property owners withhold
their rates payments, and fees for other municipal services, on the
basis of underperformance and poor service delivery. When
engagement with municipalities has failed, ratepayers associations
have gone on to declare disputes with municipalities in terms of
section 102 of the Local Government: Municipal Systems Act No 32 of
2000 ("the Systems Act"), to prevent the
disconnection of services for the duration of the protest or
dispute.
