Kleinfontein fights: Residents seek to bypass board and pay rates directly to Tshwane

Factions are brewing inside the White Afrikaner-only enclave of Kleinfontein after a group of residents formally requested to pay their rates and taxes directly to the Tshwane Municipality.

A newly formed group, the Kleinfontein Residents’ Association (Kleinfontein Inwoners Vereenigning), recently met with the City’s Deputy Mayor, Eugene Modise, to propose the direct payment system.

However, the Kleinfontein Board of Directors has dismissed the meeting as unsanctioned, arguing the group does not speak on behalf of the entire settlement.

DISPUTE OVER PAYMENTS AND GOVERNANCE

Kleinfontein is a 900-hectare settlement that is privately owned by a holding company run by the Board of Directors.

Currently, residents pay their levies and taxes to the board, which is then responsible for paying the Tshwane Municipality.

However, the chairpersonof the Kleinfontein Residents’ Association, Henk Cilliers, said that some residents no longer trust the Board with their money.

“That is why we made contacts with the municipality and say, ‘No no no, we are not part of those gangsters.’ If we pay, they don’t pay it over to the municipality, now the municipality is threatening to demolish our settlement. So we want to negotiate to have an account with Tshwane and have a valuation of our property and pay directly to Tshwane and the law allows that.”

Kleinfontein spokesperson Dannie de Beer maintains that the Residents’ Association is merely an “informal pressure group” and does not represent the settlement.

“The share block company of which the members are shareholders own the title deeds. Members through their shareholding own improvements such as houses on their land surveyed portion represented by their shareholding,” he explained.