In light of yesterday’s judgement of the Gauteng High Court, the Democratic Alliance (DA) calls on the Tshwane Metro to suspend credit control on municipal accounts that are charged a City Cleansing Levy.
The metro should also cease all threats of legal action and service cut-offs against affected residents, including SMS and email admonishments.
Yesterday, the Gauteng High Court handed down a judgment preventing Tshwane from implementing the so-called City Cleansing Levy pending the outcome of the matter before the Supreme Court of Appeal.
Afriforum won the initial case against the levy in the Gauteng High Court in August, but Tshwane decided to appeal the matter to the Supreme Court of Appeal.
This suspended the High Court judgment pending the outcome of the appeal, but Afriforum’s second court win, achieved this week, reverses the rules: the City Cleansing Levy cannot be implemented pending the outcome of the appeal.
Until the legality of the City Cleansing Levy is resolved, and until the municipality has dealt with all the account disputes resulting from the levy, residents and households should not bear the brunt of the confusion.
Such a suspension will not give residents a licence not to pay bills that are lawfully due, but it will protect already overburdened consumers from being shaken down for debts that aren’t due.
The ANC/EFF/ActionSA coalition in charge of Tshwane is happy to spend money on behalf of residents, including giving backdated pay increases to staff without a calculation of the costs. And they expect residents to pay without asking questions.
The DA has written to Tshwane City Manager, Johann Mettler, to ask for a suspension of credit control and legal action on municipal bills that contain the City Cleansing Levy and disputed accounts that haven’t yet been resolved.