Fuel levy hike to go ahead as EFF fails in court

The EFF has lost its urgent bid to halt the upcoming increase in the general fuel levy.

The Western Cape High Court in Cape Town ruled against the party on Tuesday, a day before the new levy was set to take effect.

The EFF had sought an urgent interdict in Part A of its court application to suspend the planned hike of 16 cents per litre for petrol and 15 cents for diesel.

In Part B of the application, the EFF called for a review and Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana’s decision to be set aside.

The party also asked the court to order the minister to pay legal costs.

EFF seeks fuel levy hike suspended

Advocate Mfesane Ka-Siboto, representing the EFF in court, argued that the minister’s decision lacked both rationality and parliamentary oversight.

“There’s no instrument that empowers the minister to do to what he has done,” he said.

Ka-Siboto told the court, in accordance with the Money Bills Amendment Procedure and Related Matters Act, only a law could serve as the proper instrument for the minister to impose a tax.

“What is clear is that the minister is imposing tax,” the lawyer said

He cited the act as the legal framework the minister should have followed.

Ka-Siboto also warned that the levy hike, once enacted, would be irreversible.

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Advocate Kameel Premhid, representing Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana, argued that the EFF’s request for interim relief – to suspend the fuel levy increase – failed to consider the broader implications of such a decision.

Premhid also told the court that the Department of Mineral and Petroleum Resources should have been included as a respondent in the case, highlighting that any adverse ruling would have affected the department’s duties.

“They need lead time before the petrol price increases,” he said, emphasising that the exclusion of the department was “fatal” to the EFF’s application.

He further argued that the levy price increase in question did not constitute a tax but was, in fact, a regulation.

“What the minister does is that the minister adjusts something which currently exists and he does it through a regulatory power, not through a substantive power of an amendment,” Premhid added.

EFF reacts to case dismissal

Reacting to the outcome, the EFF maintained that the levy increase was unlawful without a money bill.

“We maintain that taxation without representation is arbitrary and unconstitutional, and leaves room for abuse by the National Treasury, which is becoming increasingly desperate in the face of a collapsing economy,” the party’s statement reads.

The red berets said it will study the judgment in detail and “reserve our right to pursue further legal avenues”.

“Additionally, the EFF will use its parliamentary presence to introduce necessary amendments to relevant legislation to prevent the National Treasury from bypassing Parliament and imposing taxation without proper democratic oversight in future,” the party added.

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