Rademan judgment from Con Court

[Paul Hjul]

This morning the Constitutional Court disposed of the Rademan appeal against the decision of the Supreme Court of Appeal. The judgment is of importance to anybody caught with an inept muncipality and I encourage everybody to read it:

http://www.saflii.org/za/cases/ZACC/2013/11.html 

I haven't had an opportunity to fully study the judgment, and probably won't before the end of next week - although the budget may keep me from penning anything even then - but I have done an initial read and it confirms what I wrote about the situation in November 2011 when the Supreme Court of Appeal addressed the matter: http://jbayra.blogspot.com/2011/12/bloemfontein-has-spoken-ratespayers.html

Paragraph 42 may have application in Kouga:
"However, where a municipality claims payment from a resident or ratepayer for services, it is only entitled to payment for services that it has rendered. By the same token, where a municipality claims from a resident, customer or ratepayer payment for services, the resident, customer or ratepayer is only obliged to pay the municipality for services that have been rendered. There is no obligation on a resident, customer or ratepayer to pay the municipality for a service that has not been rendered."

I am however of the opinion that the submission of counsel for local government in para 41 "that the resident or ratepayer would not be able to refuse to pay in such a case but would have to approach a court of competent jurisdiction for a declaratory order." is largely sound. That is that prior to embarking on a campaign to decline paying for any particular municipal service which is not delivered but charged for a person should be armed with a declaratory order or at least have set forth proper notifications and so on.

The moral of the story is that recourse against the Kouga Municipality must take the form of visible public protest - of the nature embarked on last year; on increasing political pressure (a by-election is desperately needed in Kouga); on challenging the current budget which is being introduced as far under the radar as possible.

As many people as possible are needed to attend the meeting currently scheduled for the 30th May at 11:00 where the budget will be passed. The Minister of Finance needs to be held to task if he allows a 13% increase in charges in Kouga with an accompanying degradation in service and accountability.

Paul