The Pretoria high court will on Tuesday hear AfriForum’s urgent application to have the Tshwane metro’s decision to levy residents and businesses that use private refuse collectors declared unlawful.
Numerous residents and businesses use private refuse collection, forced to so because of poor service from the city collectors. They do not pay the metro for refuse collection.
Refuse collection by the metro is unreliable and leaves parts of the city filled with filth.
In a bid to boost revenue collection the city, which is struggling to balance its books and provide other basic services, in May decided to introduce a cleansing levy for residents and businesses who use private contractors.
The levy will be implemented on July 1 together with other increases. According to the municipality, the cleansing charge was for the provision of waste-related services such as street cleaning, and general urban hygiene management by the municipality.
AfriForum wants the implementation of the cleansing levy to be declared unlawful and set aside.
In an affidavit before the court, the lobby group’s Arno Roodt said the levy would affect 196,396 residential property rate payers and 62,055 businesses.
“The essence of this case is that the city seeks to impose an unlawful tax on residents and businesses to whom the city is unable to provide waste removal services,” said Roodt.
The metro in 2017, under DA leader Solly Msimanga, attempted to implement the levy but it was withdrawn after an uproar from civil society groups.
Roodt argued in court papers that the residents paid for cleansing-related services through property rates and should not have to pay for the municipality’s inability to provide waste collection services.
Roodt said some residents had no choice but use private companies: “The city can only handle general waste and cannot transport or dispose of any other types of waste at its own landfills, because it is not permitted to.
Private contractors
“Examples include industrial waste such as steel and hazardous waste such as chemicals. Residents who have businesses that produce such waste have to make use of private contractors and facilities to dispose of it in a lawful manner.”
Roodt said through fees which private companies pay to the municipality the residents essentially paid for waste collection.
“These include fees for dumping domestic waste at removal waste sites and annual waste transportation permits. All these residents and businesses already pay property rates, out of which the city finances the type of municipal services provided.”
Roodt argued the metro wanted to collect millions of rand a year through the levy to boost its finances without improving service delivery to residents.
“The funding plan shows the city is aiming to collect R540m for the 2025/26 financial year and it is taking aim at 196,396 residents and 62,055 businesses who do not receive waste collection services, to provide a half-a-billion rand.
“The city is, in fact, seeking to impose a tax, levy or duty — one that is unlawful.”
The metro intends to oppose the application but asked for more time to file answering affidavits. The municipality indicated the timelines for the urgent application were not sufficient to respond.
The DA, in opposition benches, was critical of the new levy but ActionSA has defended its mayor Nasiphi Moya for the steps she took to boost revenue collection for the city.
Residents also rejected the new levy.
Tshwane resident Ratshilumela Phungo told the metro: “Our plots are unserviceable, there are no garbage trucks that collect garbage for disposal. It is unfair for me to be charged a service I am not privileged to, only in the interest of the city revenue collection.”
Tarien Cooks said the metro would be acting unlawfully by implementing the cleansing levy.
“Absolutely no cleaning services are rendered in our area. We need to pay independent contractors for refuse removals.
“We pay rates and taxes but not even our roads are maintained. We do not receive any services from the City of Tshwane, it would be illegal to add charges for services not received.”
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