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IOL News
3 hours ago
- Business
- IOL News
Ratepayers in Durban face hefty costs due to eThekwini Municipality's legal errors
Ratepayers in Durban are left to shoulder the financial burden of a R30 million legal battle involving the eThekwini Municipality. Image: IOL / RON AI Durban's ratepayers are being forced to absorb the financial consequences of officials who continue to make unlawful decisions without fear of accountability Asad Gaffar, chairperson of the eThekwini Ratepayers Protest Movement (ERPM), remarked after the city incurred costs in a R30 million tender legal battle between the eThekwini Municipality and a service provider, Daily Double Trading, which culminated in a recent decision by the Constitutional Court. The Constitutional Court dismissed the municipality's leave to appeal against the Supreme Court of Appeal judgment - the city wanted the upper courts to overturn the Durban High Court ruling in 2022, which ordered it to pay Daily Double Trading R30 million as a settlement to the R43 million claim the company had made for work done. The municipality argued that it did not authorise an attorney to settle with the service provider; therefore, it could not be liable for the payment. However, it did not oppose the matter in court. The municipality is now liable for an additional R20 million in expenditures, including substantial legal fees, as a result of the matter continuing since 2018 at an interest rate of 10% annually. Reverend Thulasizwe Buthelezi, the MEC for the Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta), called on the municipality to recover the money from the officials involved in causing the wasteful expenditure. Gaffar said the ERPM reiterates its longstanding concern over the widespread culture of impunity, maladministration, and legal recklessness within the municipality. He said that ratepayers were being forced to absorb the financial consequences. He applauded Buthelezi's decisive intervention and his demand for full disclosure of legal costs, as well as disciplinary action against those responsible. 'This is not merely an issue of legal error, but it is a systemic governance failure that has placed further strain on an already embattled municipality, struggling with service delivery backlogs, infrastructure decay, and financial instability,' Gaffar said. The ERPM called for the full implementation of consequence management measures, including disciplinary processes, civil recovery of losses, and, where warranted, criminal referrals.
News24
5 days ago
- Business
- News24
Ex-mine workers and families accuse Mantashe, NUM of betrayal, demand ‘R40m, with interest'
Ex-mine workers and families claim they were promised unpaid wages and severance packages after ERPM's 1999 liquidation but have received nothing. Union leaders, including Gwede Mantashe, pledged to invest the money for 10 years. Victims say they are owed millions and they want it paid with interest. More than two decades after the collapse of the East Rand Proprietary Mines (ERPM), former mine workers and their families are still demanding answers and their money. When the ERPM was liquidated in 1999, at least 4 000 workers were affected. Many had worked deep underground for years, often in unsafe conditions. In the aftermath of the mine's closure, workers say they were told that the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), then under the leadership of its general secretary Gwede Mantashe, had received their settlement packages and would invest the money on their behalf. The mine was shut down after years of low productivity and financial strain. In 1998, it went into provisional liquidation and closed permanently the following year. Since then, former workers and their families have been left in limbo. This year, a group of ex-workers started organising under the Land and Minerals Movement, led by Zakhele Zuma. They held meetings, tracked down the paperwork and began pushing for accountability from both the NUM and the department of mineral resources and energy, which Mantashe now leads. Workers claim that at least R40 million was handed over to the NUM, to be invested for 10 years. Now, 25 years later, they say they have not received a cent and believe the money has grown with interest. In the Ramaphosa settlement on Gauteng's East Rand, Paulina Mokwena sits beside her husband, a former drill operator at the mine. He now struggles to walk, a condition she says was caused by injuries he sustained underground. Mahlatsi Moleya 'When the mine closed, Mantashe and the NUM were involved,' she says. 'They said they had the money. Now my husband's dying, and we haven't seen a cent. If he dies without that money, what does that say about justice in this country?' Former mine worker Leonard Maseko remembers the day the liquidators came in. He says it was then that the promises started. We were told Gwede Mantashe and his team had negotiated with the mine bosses. Later, they said the amount was too little and the money would be invested for ten years. Former mine worker Leonard Maseko 'That was more than 20 years ago. The money is there, they say, but Mantashe won't meet with us. No answers. No truth.' Some former mineworkers believe they were deliberately kept in the dark while others allegedly received hush-money payouts. "Hey, give people R2 on the corners,' says Maseko. 'Even Paul Kruger is said to be involved. But how? If the money is still in investments, where is that cash coming from?' Juliet Adam lost both her parents to this fight. Her father, who worked at the mine from 1967, died of TB in 2002. Her mother died years later, still pursuing the unpaid benefits. 'My parents died broke,' Adam says. We couldn't go to university, while others, like Mantashe's children, could. This fight has cost us everything. Timothy Sibisi, who claims he worked as Mantashe's bodyguard before he became the minister of mineral and petroleum resources, says his recent denial of any knowledge about the ERPM mine workers is deeply painful. I used to escort [protect] him every day. He was scared of being killed. I protected him. And now he says he doesn't know us. Timothy Sibisi Sibisi adds: 'It's betrayal, nothing less.' Mahlatsi Moleya Zuma, who leads the Land and Minerals Movement, has become a voice for the families. He says the group believes the outstanding amount is at least R40 million and that it should have grown with interest over the years. 'The figure is based on what former mine workers believe was owed in wages, packages and potential returns,' Zuma explains. We want that R40 million and the interest. We've been patient for 25 years. It's enough. Zakhele Zuma Rumours of secret payouts have only deepened the mistrust. 'We hear that some people were given money under the table, R1 000 here and there,' says Maseko. 'Where's that money coming from if it's all 'invested'?' The affected families say they have written to the NUM, Mantashe's office and the liquidators over the years but have received no proper response. Some say they have even been threatened or discouraged from pursuing the matter. City Press can confirm that documentation exists showing the NUM was involved in the payment arrangements for the funds intended for the mine workers and their families. What remains unclear is how the money was managed and why no payments have been made to workers. Timeline: A long wait for justice 1967: Juliet Adam's father begins work at the ERPM. 1998: ERPM placed under provisional liquidation. 1999: Mine shuts down; about 4 000 workers are affected. Early 2000s: R40 million reportedly handed to the NUM to invest for 10 years. 2017: No payments made; affected families demand transparency from the union. 2025: Workers organise under the Land and Minerals Movement. City Press contacted Mantashe and the NUM for comment. They had not responded by the time of publication. This is a developing story.
Mail & Guardian
21-05-2025
- Business
- Mail & Guardian
Joburg and Durban residents fume over municipal hikes
(eThekwini Municipality) Durban and Johannesburg residents and property owners are fuming over proposed property rate, electricity, water and sanitation tariff hikes, saying they face an affordability crisis and that their cities' crumbling services delivery does not warrant the increases for the 2025-26 financial year. Both the The ERPM is outraged by 'We hereby register a formal and unequivocal objection to the proposed tariff increases outlined by the eThekwini municipality. In the context of a deepening affordability crisis, increasing resident debt, and ongoing failures in service delivery, ERPM finds these proposed increases both indefensible and unsustainable,' the movement's chairperson, Asad Gaffar, wrote in its objection letter. He described ratepayers' grievances as encompassing an affordability crisis that leaves residents unable to meet existing service costs, escalating debt levels that risk locking households into prolonged financial hardship, service delivery failures marked by 'contractor irregularities' and 'questionable municipal spending' that eroded public trust. 'The municipality has not demonstrated how prior tariff revenues have been applied to deliver on the Integrated Development Plan (IDP). In the absence of financial transparency, any request for increased revenue is unacceptable,' Gaffar wrote. Ratepayers also called for tighter oversight of contractors, and a formal role for ratepayers in approving municipal projects. 'We will not accept continued financial burdens on residents without accountability, transparency, and meaningful reform,' Gaffar wrote. This week, he told the Mail & Guardian that the movement was also demanding a moratorium on tariff hikes, because many pensioners,and people who had lost their jobs were already in a collective R30 billion arrears. 'It's one of the reasons the city is struggling to collect revenue. Most individuals are in debt because they have no other choice. They cannot pay for services. Anyone who's in debt makes a psychological choice. When that amount is affordable or unreasonable, they just simply ignore it and wait for the consequence,' Gaffar said. 'That's exactly what's happening with people at the moment, they have a choice between buying food or paying for services and, in most instances, they can't even afford to pay for services.' He said the city needed to reexamine how it determines who qualifies as indigent in terms of tariff exemptions because many unemployed or retired people live in homes over a certain value and are excluded from these tax breaks. 'The municipality is then saying 'if you can't afford to pay for services then sell that house and move somewhere else'. The question is: move out and go somewhere else, where? The fact that the employees of the city themselves cannot afford to pay for services, tells you there's a problem.' The city's budget consultation process was also inadequate, Gaffar said. 'The municipality doesn't understand what public participation means. They simply come there, tell you what they're doing. They tell you what the budget figures are and, more often than not, the individuals at the meeting start to complain about services. 'What the municipality does is have these meetings more often than not in areas where there are no working citizens. They use that to say, 'of the 100,000 people who attended these budget meetings, 5% will complain'.' eThekwini mayor Cyril Xaba announced a 50% cut in arrears debt owed to the city subject to conditions including that debtors settle the balance in full to obtain the discount. eThekwini spokesperson Gugu Sisilana declined to comment on the movement's objection. 'We are not going to single out any ratepayer association by discussing their objections as the city conducted budget /IDP roadshows across the length and breadth of the city and is considering all objections/comments received,' she said, adding that the outcome would be communicated during a full council meeting. In Johannesburg, the city's draft budget for 2025-26 proposed increases of 4.6% for property rates, 12.41% for electricity, 13.9% for water and sanitation and 6.6% for refuse removal. The The association raised concern about policy changes, particularly the restriction of the R300 000 residential threshold rebate to a single property per owner. 'This change will disproportionately affect affordable housing providers,' the association's general manager, Angela Rivers, wrote in the objection letter, noting that 'the financial benefit of the rebate does not accrue to the property owner as profit'. 'Instead, it subsidises operational costs and allows landlords to maintain below-market rentals for low-income residents,' she said. Without the rebate, tenants faced higher rents, risking 'displacement and affordability collapse in formal rental housing'. Equally contentious was the proposed 'non-maintenance' penalty tariff, which the association said was 'flawed and likely unconstitutional'. The tariff aims to charge properties deemed 'not maintained' rates of six times the standard residential rate. The association has warned that the proposal risks accelerating the decline of the inner city, 'with knock-on impacts for crime, unemployment, and spatial inequality'. 'This violates the principles of administrative justice,' Rivers said, warning that it could punish owners of hijacked or distressed buildings, chilling investment in urban regeneration. She added that Johannesburg faced a housing backlog of more than 459 000 units and the city could not afford to alienate the very sector helping to address this shortfall. The association objected to the 12.41% increase in electricity tariffs and the introduction of a R130 or R200 per-unit network capacity charge for electricity reseller buildings. 'The imposition of this charge undermines the policy rationale for the reseller model,' it argued, noting that it amounts to 'double-recovery' because property owners already cover infrastructure costs. Data from the association's member buildings shows tenants consume an average of 98-159 kWh a month, Rivers added, well within the low-usage threshold, making the fixed charges 'regressive' and 'disproportionately burdensome' for low-income households. The association is working on an affordable housing tariff for presentation to the She said there was little transparency on how public input is processed or incorporated into final decisions, 'which makes it difficult to assess the true impact of engagement' with the city. 'Until the final tariffs and IDP are published, we can't say whether our comments were meaningfully considered. Public consultation is only sufficient if it leads to real results — and for that, we'll have to wait and see,' Rivers added. City of Johannesburg spokesperson Nkosana Lekotjolo did not respond to the M&G's request for comment on these objections but pointed to budget documents highlighting the tariff increases, saying the budget speech would be presented next week. Comparing these costs across three major metros, eThekwini has imposed the highest property rates increase at 12.9%, nearly double Johannesburg's 7.5% and above Cape Town's 7.9%. For electricity, Durban leads with a 12.72% hike, followed by Johannesburg at 12.41% and Cape Town at 2%, markedly lower than Cape Town has also proposed several new policies that would see tariffs, such as water and sanitation, rising steeply for mid- to higher-end valued properties as it seeks to link charges to property valuations. These include water and sanitation tariff increases of 7.3% and 11.1% respectively, with additional fixed charges now based on property value rather than connection size. For example, a property valued at R5 million may face a fixed water charge of R548.87 a month plus usage costs. A new city-wide cleaning tariff has also been proposed based on property value, replacing its previous property rates funding model.
