UThukela District Municipality mayor Inkosi Ntandoyenkosi Shabalala, who learned on Juanuary 23, 2026 that his municipality no longer has control over its bank accounts.
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The UThukela District Municipality has launched an urgent application with the Pietermaritzburg High Court to suspend a writ of execution, that led to its bank account being attached.
The legal action was instituted by RASP Consultants CC and its project manager Roshan Sewpersad, with the municipality appealing to the court to suspend the legal action and prevent a complete collapse of its essential services.
Sewpersad, claims the municipality owed him millions and was unfairly prioritising other service providers.
According to court papers, UThukela City Manager Langelihle Jili, said RASP made unsolicited bids to the municipality for water plant maintenance services in 2021 and 2022. Jili explained that RASP faced challenges in receiving payment while the municipality was under administration. .
Following a court application by the company in April 2025, a settlement agreement was reached
The municipality acknowledged a debt of over R100 million but informed Sewpersad it could not pay this out in a lump sum. An agreement was reached for payment in 24 installments until mid-2033, which has been formalised in writing, the municipality said.
The first R3 million installment was due on December 15, 2025, but was not paid. Jili stated they had anticipated receiving certain grants, including an equitable share from the National Treasury, before the due date, which did not materialise.
“This was the anticipated source of the instalment due to be paid to RASP,” Jili said.
Jili said they requested a grace period and eventually paid RASP on January 13, 2026, after initially promising payment on January 9. Despite accepting the late payment, RASP invoked clause 7 of the settlement agreement, which stipulated that any breach of terms made the full remaining amount, plus 11% interest, immediately due and payable.
Jili asserts that RASP did not demand payment but immediately moved to procure a writ of execution.
The writ was sought from the High Court registrar on January 20. Jili alleged that on the same day, the sheriff of the court attended the municipality’s offices to attach movable assets.
Jili questioned the legality of this, explaining that, legally, the sheriff must liaise with a duly authorised official to identify available assets before a nulla bona (a return stating no assets were found) can be issued.
“As the municipal manager, the head of administration, and more importantly, the accounting officer, I did not even know if and when the sheriff attended to the municipality.”
The sheriff returned a nulla bona, and the following day, RASP’s attorneys instructed the sheriff to attach the municipality’s bank accounts. This resulted in the municipality losing control of critical accounts, including the FNB account used for creditor payments, employee salaries, and debit orders for utilities like Eskom and Telkom.
“Within a matter of days, the sheriff had extracted no less than R82 million from the municipality’s bank accounts. This was done indiscriminately, and the sheriff effectively took whatever he could find, and everything he could find in the accounts. He milked the accounts dry.”
RASP Consultants CC and Sewpersad have until close of business on Thursday to file their opposing court papers.
The matter is scheduled to be heard next week.