Residents cry foul, slam metro for defying court order on unlawful cleansing levy

The Tshwane metro has come under heavy fire after continuing to bill residents for the controversial R194 monthly cleansing levy, despite two High Court rulings declaring it unlawful and unconstitutional.

The Gauteng North Division of the High Court has ruled in favour of AfriForum, which took the metro to court on August 1 over the levy imposed on households and complexes that use private waste collectors.

The court found the levy to be irrational and ordered the metro to stop billing residents and credit-affected accounts during the next billing cycle.

The metro, however, lodged an application for leave to appeal, which was dismissed with costs on August 25.

Despite this, residents have reported being billed again in September, with some even saying that reversed charges from July and August had been reinstated under new line items such as ‘miscellaneous’ and ‘waste management’.

Spokesperson Selby Bokaba said the metro has 30 days to appeal and will seek advice from senior legal counsel on the implications of the judgment and the way forward.

“The metro has noted [the] ruling by the Gauteng North Division of the High Court on its application for leave to appeal the judgment on the cleansing levy for customers using private waste collectors.

“The city will consult senior counsel to determine the next steps,” said Bokaba.

However, residents insist the metro is acting in bad faith.

Resident Jaco Visser said the city is deliberately ignoring the court order while still billing residents.

“You can ask any legal person if there is an order made against you; you are bound by that order until a higher court rules otherwise.”

Visser said the metro appealed once and lost.

He added that now the metro wants to go up again against the ruling, but until then, the metro must abide by it.

“Yet they are still charging us, which is in breach of the order,” he said.

Visser explained that on his latest bill, the cleansing levy was reinstated after having previously been reversed.

“Last month, they reversed the charges, but now they have added them back again, even charging me twice under miscellaneous.

“They are continuing to bill unlawfully. This month alone, they charged me R670. This is on top of what I already pay for private refuse collection in my complex, which is included in levies. It’s double taxation and it’s unfair.”

Visser said the impact is significant.

“On one of my flats, which is a two-bedroom unit with no garden, I was charged R223 for this levy. That’s on top of my normal city bill, which already comes to around R1 600. Adding another R220 means almost a 20% increase on my monthly expenses. There are two elderly people living there, and there is no way their refuse amounts to that cost. It is exorbitant.”

Annele Louw, who manages several blocks of flats in Sunnyside and Arcadia, echoed Visser’s frustration.

She said the metro’s actions amount to contempt of court.

“I own flats in three blocks of flats and I’m the managing agent of several more. In July, they billed us R223.53 per unit.”

She said that at the end of that month, the court declared the levy unlawful.

Louw added that in August, they reversed the charges.

However, in September, the same charges reappeared and this time under ‘waste management’ and ‘miscellaneous’.

“They re-billed us for July, August, and September. That is three times in total,” she explained.

Louw said the metro’s behaviour is unacceptable.

“They are in contempt of a court order. This is not just bad faith; it is unlawful.

“Residents were not given the opportunity to choose; the court gave the order and the metro must comply,” she said.

“We live in a democratic country where we have the right to choose private service providers, especially when the metro fails to deliver.”

Louw said in her blocks of flats, if they did not have private contractors removing waste daily, rubbish would overflow and pose a health hazard.

“The city cannot penalise us for making alternative arrangements.”

She also criticised the metro’s billing practices more broadly.

According to Louw, this is not the first time they’ve had to go to court over unlawful penalties.

“The city makes errors, residents complain, but the system is faceless. You don’t know who is responsible for your bill.”

She said even when you pay what you actually owe, they wrongly charge interest on so-called arrears caused by their own mistakes.

“It’s exhausting and destroys trust in the system,” she said.

AfriForum, which led the court challenge, also condemned the metro’s conduct.

Arno Roodt, AfriForum’s District Co-ordinator for Greater Pretoria South, said the metro continues to include the city cleaning levy on the bills of residents despite two consecutive defeats in the Pretoria High Court.

“The court declared the levy unlawful, irrational, and unconstitutional and ordered the metro to remove it and credit residents in the next cycle.

“The metro’s appeal was dismissed with costs, and yet on its latest accounts dated September 1, it not only billed the levy again but reinstated amounts that had already been credited,” he said.

AfriForum accused the metro of disregarding a binding court order and called on residents to report unlawful charges through its complaints platform.

Roodt said this has been an important victory for residents, but means nothing if the metro ignores the courts.

“The continued billing is not just administrative incompetence, it is contempt of court,” he said.