Municipal assets sold to recover costs

Koster/ Swartruggens – Koster and Swartruggens residents were granted the power by the court to take over the management of the Kgetlengrivier Local Municipality’s (KLM) water services during January 2021.

After back-and-forth appearances in the courts, control was handed back to KLM in March 2021. However, KLM owed residents for these services rendered.

After failing to pay up, a court order was obtained to sell the KLM’s assets on auction to recover these fees.

Platinum Weekly reached out to Andreas Peens Attorneys, who assisted the Koster and Swartruggens residents with their case to find out what the current state of affairs is in the matter.

In a statement, attorney Andreas Peens said: The local authority was given an opportunity to prevent their assets from being sold. However, they could not put a sensible payment arrangement on the table for consideration by the management of the Concerned Residents Group.

The sale was endorsed on Monday 10 October 2022 and the municipality affectively lost their assets.
Service delivery has always been poor. The municipality should not be worse off, because the vehicles have been unused for years. Only the TLB will complicate the digging of graves.

The rest of the assets were already broken and in poor condition because they were not properly maintained by the authorities.

SARS will in all probability take the proceeds of the sale, because they also have a judgment, and the result is that SARS has a preferential share in the sale. Therefore, the residents will continue to obtain a second order for extraction against municipal assets.

Andreas Peens Attorneys
38 Magalies Street, Koster
014 000 0200

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