Pretoria – The Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs has condemned the fees charged by the Chief to the community of Dikgokgopheng Village in Limpopo, in order to use the cemetery.
These actions are in no way consistent with the laws of the country and fly in the face of the country’s Constitution, the Cooperative Governance Minister Des van Rooyen said on Tuesday.
Only government may impose levies and taxes, and only for as far as it is authorised by the Constitution.
The Minister said it was worrying that the fees are expected even in times of grief when people have lost their loved ones.
He called on the leadership of Dikgokgopheng to desist from muscling poor communities with unjust rules and regulations.
“As government we recognise that without laws, regulations or policies, there could be chaos and it would be the survival of the strong and rich, at the expense of the poor and the weak, but rules cannot be enacted to satisfy the few and hurt the masses, whilst being inconsistent with the Constitution,” said Minister van Rooyen.
Laws or regulations are important for a society for they serve as a norm of conduct for communities.
The department said there is no provision in the Constitution that could be found or allow any other structure, except government to impose levies or taxes.
Section 21(6) of the Constitution determines that “Until the legislation envisaged in section 229(1)(b) of the new Constitution is enacted, a municipality remains competent to impose any tax, levy or duty which it was authorized to impose when the Constitution took effect”.
Section 229 deals with municipal fiscal powers and functions and states in subsection (1)(b) that a municipality may impose taxes, levies and duties appropriate to local government if so authorized in terms of national legislation.
The section further states that no municipality may impose income tax, value-added tax, general sales tax or customs duty.
A municipality is not allowed to delegate the imposition of rates, taxes, levies and duties, according to section 160(2) of the Constitution. - SAnews.gov.za
