Residents associations

All residents, ratepayers, homeowners and taxpayers associations are likely to be different, depending on what the residents themselves demand of the association.

Wikipedia describes residents associations as organisations formed by groups of people from a specific geographic community who come together to address issues within their local area and act as a voice for their local community.

These organisations generally enjoy limited formal recognition by municipalities. Municipalities prefer to regard ward committees as having locus standi. This is probably because ward committees can more easily be managed by municipalities directly. There is no externally-imposed requirement for a resident association to include a whole suburb/township, or to be restricted to a single suburb/township.

Many ward councillors regard the residents associations in their wards as very valuable instruments, and strongly encourages their formation and effective functioning. A body of elected people who can legitimately claim to represent the will and interests of residents of an area becomes very useful to the councillor as a reference group in informing decisions on applications for such matters as rezoning or review of restrictive title conditions over properties, or in matters like developing the Integrated Development Plan (IDP) wishlist.

In respect of service delivery ,residents associations are likely to get involved in identifying issues of common concern to residents, unpacking these issues, and even conceptualising preferred solutions (e.g. traffic management issues, infrastructure failures, encroachment of (especially unapproved) business into residential areas, maintenance of public property such as parks etc.) Residents Associations would typically not get involved in issues specific to one or two residents, except perhaps in assisting to escalate matters that are not resolved.

In respect of development planning, residents associations will typically be asked by the councillor to apply their minds to applications relating to rezoning or changes to title restrictions.