Tshwane’s R600m cleansing levy takes effect amid court case

Tshwane metro’s new municipal levy, which will affect thousands of residents and businesses using private waste removal services, will be implemented on Tuesday despite a court challenge.

In May the municipality approved the implementation of a cleansing levy to bill 196,396 residential property ratepayers and 62,055 businesses using private refuse removal contractors. They do not pay the metro for garbage removal.

The municipality plans to raise R601m a year via the cleansing levy for the provision of waste-related services such as street cleaning and general urban hygiene management.

The residents use contractors due to the unreliability of the metro’s garbage collection. 

Lobby group AfriForum lodged an urgent application at the Pretoria high court to halt the implementation of the levy, arguing that affected residents and businesses were contributing to the city’s cleaning services. 

AfriForum wanted the case to be heard last week but the municipality asked for more time to file court papers. Last Friday, both parties agreed on the matter being heard in July. Judge Noluntu Bam postponed it to an unspecified date.

This means the cleansing levy will be implemented on July 1 without a court order stopping it and 258,451 taxpayers will have increased municipal bills with an added R194 charge at end-July. 

Tshwane metro’s waste management head, Louis Makhubele, said in an affidavit that while the affected parties used private contractors, the municipality was still responsible for processing rubbish at landfills — a service those ratepayers received but did not pay for. 

“The ratepayers who do not have an account with the city are effectively free riders. They enjoy services for which they make no contribution,” Makhubele said. “The treatment and management of waste is predominantly dealt with by the municipality.

“Many of the ratepayers’ waste is ultimately delivered at the facilities of the city of Tshwane for processing and management.”

AfriForum said private contractors paid a fee to dump garbage at metro landfills, but Makhubele said dumping at city landfills was generally free. “I challenge AfriForum to provide evidence of private waste collectors paying Tshwane for use of its disposal sites,” he said.

The lobby group’s Arno Roodt, in an answering affidavit, was adamant private contractors paid at the municipality’s landfills. 

“The city challenges the applicant [AfriForum] to provide evidence of private waste collection paying the city for the use of its waste disposal. In answer to the challenge, I refer the court to the statement of account from the city provided to the applicant by Smart Waste, another private waste removal company,” Roodt argued. 

Roodt said the municipality created the impression that the affected ratepayers opted to use private collectors out of free will, but the metro had failed in its duty, forcing thousands to find alternatives.

“The truth is that the public has no choice in the matter,” he said. “The city does not provide evidence of a single instance where it is capable of providing waste removal services and where the public or as the city refers to them disrespectfully, ‘freeloaders’, refuses that service. Many affected members of the public have to find alternative means out of necessity stands uncontradicted.” 

The metro argues it has the capacity to provide the service.

AfriForum wants the levy to be reviewed and set aside. The group contended the municipality did not follow correct legal processes before it implemented what it terms a “double tax” on thousands of rate payers.

The metro was adamant the case was not urgent because if the court found the levy was unlawful it could credit residents billed amounts but Roodt said this would create an administrative nightmare.

The metro at times, like Joburg metro, suffers from systematic billing issues and residents have previously won cases against it.

While the DA in the opposition benches in the region has pushed against the levy, Tshwane MMC for environment & agriculture management and EFF leader Obakeng Ramabodu defended it.

sinesiphos@businesslive.co.za