Date: July 11, 2013
The Ehlanzeni District Municipality (EDM) council have approved the write off of a R119 million debt reportedly owed to the municipality by SANParks and Sabi Sand Game Reserve for outstanding property levies.
The decision was taken following a recommendation by the Ehlanzeni District council in a meeting held on 19 June, for the debt to be written off after various attempts to acquire the amount owed, including court action, proved fruitless.
Council began billing for property rates from 1July 2009 in the then District Management Area of the Kruger National Park (KNP) and surrounding areas.
The property rates were levied over a period of two years, before the District Management Area was demarcated to three of Ehlanzeni’s local municipalities-Mbombela, Nkomazi and Bushbuckridge in 2011, at which time Council ceased the billing.
“The property rate owners were billed for the property rates on a monthly basis and were supposed to pay council for these rates. They did not and their debt escalated to R119 475 060.39. As of 31st May 2013, no payment had been received from these debtors since 2009,” said EDM Executive Mayor, Letta Shongwe.
In 2011, Council proceeded with court action against the debtors, taking the matter to the North Gauteng High Court.
“The parties agreed to stay out of the court proceedings and reopened negotiations with an intention to settle the matter out of court. This yielded no positive results which then forced the municipality to proceed with the court proceedings again,” said Shongwe.
According to Shongwe, the municipality was seeking for a court order to attach the assets of the rate-payers to the tune of the amount owed.
“The municipality reassessed its position and concluded that the cost of obtaining the order would far outweigh the benefits that will accrue to the municipality after the order had been granted,” she said.
This would include the municipality having to attach biological assets (animals) from the KNP in order to settle the outstanding debts.
Subsequent requests in 2012 for interventions by Minister of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Richard Baloyi, National Treasury and Minister of Finance Praveen Gordhan to assist in resolving the dispute reportedly proved unsuccessful.
“A resolution was taken that this debt be written off as it has been long outstanding and all the alternative methodologies have been exhausted by council in trying to recoup the amount owed to it,” Shongwe concluded.
Legal representative for Sabi Sand Reserve, Elmien le Roux from Knowles Husain Lindsay Incorporated said that the Reserve had not received any municipal accounts from EDM.
“None of the owners within the Sabi Sand Reserve had received any such accounts. A list that had been circulated with amounts purportedly due in respect of the Sabi Sand properties to the municipality, does not align with the entries in the valuation roll and seems to be based on incorrect information and for periods prior to the commencement of the valuation roll,” Le Roux said.
KNP Head of Communications, William Mabasa, said that the decision to write off the debts was the correct one.
“This is the right move. EDM has given us very little assistance and we are basically self-sufficient when it comes to finances. It is therefore unfair for them to request such a large sum of money from us,” Mabasa explained.
“Those claims can easily deplete the entire SANParks annual budget,” he said. – The Write News Agency
http://showme.co.za/nelspruit/news/coun ... arks-debt/
It was a silly effort by Ehlanzeni to make money in the first place...going on for years now!
