Durban - Durban ratepayers involved in a tariff dispute with the eThekwini Municipality have applied to the Durban High Court for an interdict to prevent the municipality from disconnecting their water and lights while the dispute is pending.
The ratepayers are being led by the Westville Ratepayers’ Association (WRA), which is listed in the court papers as the applicant, while the municipality is the respondent.
Following the passing of the 20232024 financial budget, the ratepayers raised concerns that the tariffs were too high.
The WRA also raised concerns about the process that was followed and they believed that there had been poor consultation. For this and a myriad of other reasons, they declared a dispute with the municipality on June 30 and withheld the payments that were due at the end of July for rates and services. The money was deposited in a trust account.
On August 15, the court papers reveal, the municipality started delivering demands that people must pay or their services would be cut.
This, the WRA said, was in violation of legislation as there was a dispute in place, and had necessitated this court action by the municipality.
The papers state that should the City wish to oppose the application, it should notify the applicant’s attorneys by September 1 and file answering affidavits by September 22. The matter is set down to be heard in November.
The affidavit lists other challenges, including that the City’s tariff increases for electricity contained in the budget were not approved by the National Energy Regulator of South Africa.
The affidavit states that the WRA and its affiliates had written to the mayor to get an undertaking that the services would not be cut under the City’s credit control policy until the matter was resolved by the court of law; the mayor was given until August 23 to respond.
“Consequently, the applicant has no choice but, on behalf of its members, to assert and protect their rights,” said the affidavit. The WRA said the municipality should bear the cost of the application, pointing out that the application would not have been necessary had the municipality shown good faith.
EThekwini Municipality spokesperson Gugu Sisilana said: “We have received a notification from our legal team that this matter is now the subject of a court interdict filed by the ratepayers’ association. We understand that papers were filed in Court but the municipality has not been served with the papers. Once we receive the papers, we will determine the course of action. Therefore, we are not in a position to discuss this matter any further since it is subject to court processes.”