20 November 2009
	Agricultural levies a rip-off Peter Gordon Grant, Molteno

A few years back our forward-thinking government passed a bill that now allows municipalities to levy rates and taxes on agricultural ground; that is, farms. The ball was thrown into our court to negotiate with our local municipality regarding the rate. Many farmers' unions had to act fast as the municipalities saw this as a get-rich-quick scheme. There were no benchmarks at the time so some districts' rates ended up a lot higher than others. There were discounts for structures and services that were in existence on farms, but we still ended with an extra cost in our system. In essence what we have here is money having to be paid over to, in many cases corrupt, municipalities for nothing. A difficult concept to swallow. At first farmers agreed as there were still some basic services that were rendered, such as the grading of roads and a monthly clinic visit. As corruption and high salaries used up the funds, these have now been discontinued. The cherry on top is that only white farmers pay rates and taxes. Back to the evil old days. The time will come when all farmers will stand together and say, "No more, the buck stops right here. You want food security, leave us be to produce at the lowest cost possible." We have been price takers for a long time and are able to produce low-cost food, but not while filling the pockets of local municipalities who have yet to, and never will, raise a finger to assist us.