Officials defend levy after court declared it unlawful; opposition fears major fiscal consequences and mismanaged billing.
The City of Tshwane finds itself at the centre of a heated legal and political storm over its controversial cleaning levy – a tariff recently declared unlawful by the High Court in Pretoria.
While city officials insist the levy remains enforceable pending appeal, opposition parties and civic leaders argue that continued billing defies the court’s ruling and risks financial chaos.
As accusations of double-charging and fiscal mismanagement mount, residents are left questioning the transparency, legality and ethics of their local government’s actions.
Tshwane defends controversial cleaning levy despite High Court ruling
Deputy mayor and MMC for finance Eugene Modise has said that while the city has filed a petition for leave to appeal with the Supreme Court of Appeal, the cleansing levy therefore remains in effect.
“Contrary to misleading claims suggesting that the city is unaware of the extent of double-billing, this is not the case,” he said.
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“Out of about 804 000 accounts across the city, around 12 000 – representing about 1.5% – were incorrectly billed. We are prioritising the correction of these accounts.”
Modise said these were typically estates and residential complexes that have contractual arrangements with private waste management service providers through their long-standings.
He said this was not the intention, and the city is now undertaking a corrective process to ensure that all affected accounts are adjusted accordingly.
City spent R783k on defending legaility of levy
DA Tshwane mayoral candidate Cilliers Brink said they received answers from mayor Nasiphi Moya on questions relating to the cleaning levy, where the mayor admitted the city had spent R783 000 on defending the legality of this levy in court.
“Moya’s letter also indicated that there were no costs for city cleaning budgeted against the income from the levy,” he said.
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“Thereby conceding to the court ruling that set aside the cleaning levy, where the court found the city could not prove the funds generated would be used for city cleaning.”
Brink said not only has the city petitioned the Supreme Court of Appeal to have this ruling overturned, but they were also planning to spend even more money to institute this new tax.
Republican Conference of Tshwane councillor Lex Middelberg said Moya’s coalition government proceeding to raise the cleaning levy on ratepayers’ accounts as if there was no court order declaring it illegal is desperate.
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“She proves herself to be incapable of learning from past experiences,” he said. “It is obvious her government has no risk management strategy in place and has made no provision for contingencies.”
Middelberg said the cleaning levy accounts for less than 1% of the city’s total revenue budget.
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“The city should stay the levying thereof until the final outcome of the dispute is known,” he said.
“Now, it is still in a position to do so with minor adjustments to the budget. If the city continues to raise the levy while fighting this judgment and loses, whoever is in government then will have to refund the equivalent of more than 10% of the budget to ratepayers in one year.”
Middelberg said even a financially healthy city will never be able to repay that.
“What the government is trying to do is to create a fait accompli, forcing the courts into some sort of equitable outcome solution years down the line that will allow it to keep the money. Ratepayers must not allow this to happen.”
