Property owners to withold payment of levy

MALALANE – The Marloth Park Property Owners Association (MPPOA) has requested all property owners in the area to withhold their voluntary entrance levy.

This came to light after countless attempts by the association to get the municipality to address security matters relating to access to the conservation park.

In an official press release, the MPPOA said Nkomazi Local Municipality’s (NLM) failure to follow proper tenderprocedure has forced them to withhold their payments.

“The municipality, represented by municipal manager, Dan Ngwenya has, after specifically undertaking to consult with the association, representing the property owners of Marloth Park, gone ahead and once again granted a tender of several hundred thousand rand to a company, without following any procedure.

“The owners voluntarily pay a monthly entrance levy to NLM, for access control and security at the two entrance gates. This is done in terms of the establishment’s conditions. This money is, however, totally mismanaged and not well spent for the benefit of Marloth Park and its property owners. To our knowledge, no other community in the region, pays such levies. In the past, the municipality appointed various security companies, all without consultation with the community it serves and without any performance requirements demanded of the contractors. Mismanagement by Nkomazi, over many years, has continuously led to uncontrolled security access with virtually free entry and exit of vehicles and pedestrians,” read the press release.

“This has been brought to the attention of the mayor, the municipal manager, the municipal CFO and others, on various occasions. Undertakings have been made by NLM to address and consult with the community regarding this problem, which

it never did.

Very recently, this ongoing and very unsatisfactory state of affairs prompted the committee of MPPOA to send a strongly worded letter to the municipal manager on September 2. We clearly stated in this letter that enough was enough.”

It was also sent to the mayor,

MMC of finance and various others. The reaction was satisfactory, as that evening a meeting was set up with Ngwenya in Marloth Park for the following day.

“During this meeting Ngwenya admitted that NLM had failed the property owners in that the contract at the gates was issued without the proper procedure or consultation. He undertook to rectify this situation. MPPOA was further asked to provide him with specific requests of the gate and access control, as well as the scope of repairs that were required to the two entrance structures. The cost of which could comfortably be covered by the significant excess between this voluntary fund received by NLM and what was being paid to the contractor.

“The municipal manager, at the same meeting, also undertook to convene a special council meeting to address this, as well as permission for the appointment and training of 10 peace officers for the park, from within our own community. This has been approved by the law-enforcement department in Nkomazi some time ago.

This initiative by MPPOA will give the community some degree of law enforcement – which is completely lacking and disregarded by NLM. There is absolutely no law enforcement in Marloth Park, no traffic or by-law enforcement.

To date nothing has been heard from Ngwenya and therefore, MPPOA requests all property owners to stand together and issue instruction in writing to the municipality, that no further voluntary entrance levy will be paid.

If the municipality felt that it was its right to spend MPPOA’s money, without consultation and value in return, (when we are paying it voluntarily), then it can go ahead and fund this useless expense from other funds.”

At the next general meeting scheduled for Saturday at 10:00, the association will put this issue on the agenda for open discussion on plans and strategy going forward.