July 17 2025 13:22
SOUTH AFRICA
The South African Property Owners Association (Sapoa) has brought an urgent application in the Western Cape Division of the High Court to have three tariffs implemented by the City of Cape Town on July 1 2025 reviewed and then set aside.
Sapoa also published a legal notice to invite other parties and individuals to join the litigation.
The Cape Town Collective Ratepayers Association. which represents 59 different ratepayers’ organisations, said it would look at the legal documents and possibly join the court action.
Sapoa is challenging the city’s cleaning levy as well as fixed charges for water and sanitation. The tariffs are linked to the value of each property, which Sapoa contends is unlawful.
Sapoa asked the court to declare the tariffs invalid and suspend the order for two months to allow the city to rectify them. If the city can’t rectify the three tariffs in isolation and still raise the budgeted amounts, the court is asked to set aside the whole budget. Sapoa wants an early court date so there can be certainty for all involved before preparation for the city’s 2026/27 budget starts on September 1 this year.
In its recen Operating Costs Report, Sapoa showed that electricity costs constituted 29% of all operating costs by June last year, and municipal costs made up 60% of all operating costs.
Sapoa said that legislation authorises municipalities to levy four kinds of charges:
- Property rates
- Surcharges on basic charges
- Consumption-based charges, and
- Municipal tax – if authorised by national legislation.
The three tariffs are not based on consumption. Sapoa says the tariffs are not surcharges based on a basic charge nor a municipal tax.
Sapoa said the tariffs a form of property rates as they are linked to property value, and says they do not comply with the Property Rates Act.
Sapoa’s CEO Neil Gopal has said that it regularly meets with the City of Cape Town. But he said several interactions with the City of Cape Town did not address its members’ concern adequately.
In a final effort to avoid litigation Sapoa asked the city “to provide it with a legal opinion supporting the linking of the tariffs with property value, but the city declined to do so”.
alistair@propertyflash.co.za
