Finance minister criticised for absence in fixed tariffs case

IT WAS both the view of the City of Cape Town and the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) that the minister of finance should be wrapped over the knuckles for the department’s absence in the case where the City’s fixed tariffs are being challenged.

- THEOLIN TEMBO.

Yesterday saw the conclusion of what the court heard had been one of the “most complex cases that we've ever had to articulate’, according to the City’s lawyer, Advocate Nazreen Bawa SC.

Since Tuesday, Judge President Nolwazi Mabindla-Boqwana, as well as presiding judges Judge Andre le Grange and Judge Katharine Savage, have heard from legal representatives from the South African Property Owners Association (Sapoa), AfriForum, the city, GOOD, Cape Town Ratepayers Association, SA Ist Forum, and Cogta.

In its main application, Sapoa and AfriForum are asking for the three tariffs in the budget, namely the Cleaning Tariff, the Fixed Water Charge, and the Fixed Sanitation Charge, to be declared unconstitutional and invalid.

The City has maintained that its fixed charges are not rates but service charges.