GOOD Statement by Brett Herron,
GOOD Secretary-General & Member of Western Cape Parliament
06 May 2026
LEGAL ADVICE: CAPE TOWN MUST DROP UNLAWFUL TARIFFS WHETHER IT APPEALS OR NOT
Launching an appeal against last week’s full-bench Western Cape High Court judgment that declared its fixed cleaning, water and sanitation tariffs unlawful will not suspend the binding effect of the judgement.
The court ordered the City to dump its unlawful charges by the end of June, which is also the date by which the City must adopt its 2026/27 budget. Whether the City appeals the judgement or not, it has no option but to drop the unlawful tariffs until a superior court overturns the judgement. This will certainly not happen before the end of next month.
In a letter addressed to the City’s legal representatives today, the GOOD Party requests urgent transparency from the City regarding its budgetary intentions to mitigate the risk of legal delays.
Citing case law including Release Mandela Campaign v State President (1988) and Zuma v Downer and Another (SCA 2024), the GOOD Party warns that should the City be wrongly advised that launching an appeal will enable it to ignore the full-bench judgement, it could be tripped up afresh by an application to the court for an order putting its original order into effect pending the appeal.
“The upshot is that for the City’s next budget and tariff policy, it would be unlawful to impose the fixed tariff fees for cleaning, water and sewage, as they would violate section 74(2) of the Systems Act, in accordance with the ratio of the Full Court.
“This means that even if the City does intend to seek leave to appeal and pursues an appeal against the Full Court’s order, in that period the City cannot, in law, again impose the impugned tariffs on the residents of Cape Town.
“Aside from these legal principles, it would be highly inappropriate and irregular for the City to do so. If the SCA or Constitutional Court ultimately upholds the Full Court’s judgment and order, and rules against the City after a few years, Capetonians may be denied effective relief against the unlawful imposition of charges in the interim.”
Should the City be advised to accept the court judgement and order, as it should, the City is required by law and the Court’s order to take steps to remedy the consequences of its unlawful conduct.
“The effective remedy is to reverse these unlawfully imposed charges. Ordinary residents of Cape Town cannot be expected to have paid unlawfully imposed charges. Our client calls on the City to explain how it will go about reversing the unlawfully imposed charges. This could include crediting municipal accounts.”
The letter respectfully requested a response from the City on this matter of considerable public interest by Friday.
* The GOOD Party joined the South African Property Owners Association’s application to overturn the City of Cape Town’s unlawful cleaning, water and sanitation tariffs because neither SAPOA nor AfriForum (which launched a parallel application) represent the interests of working-class Capetonians or the poor.
Due to gentrification, development and inheritance, among other factors, there is a fairly large group of Capetonians who live in properties they could not afford to buy today. Nor can they afford to pay premium tariffs because they live in such properties. The municipal framework provides for progressive, consumption-based tariffs and targeted support for low-income households, which wouldn’t require the Mayor to resort to unlawful billing structures that don’t make allowance for Cape Town’s soaring property prices.
Media Enquiries: media@forgood.org.za