Note to Editors: Please find attached English and Afrikaans soundbites by Cllr René Steyn and Sesotho soundbite by David Masoeu MPL with the court decision here
The Free State High Court has put the brakes on Matjhabeng’s excessive 25% water tariff increase.
The court’s decision to suspend the increase, pending the outcome of the Matjhabeng Community Forum’s review application, is a significant development for residents.
For months, the DA scrutinised Matjhabeng’s IDP, budget and tariff processes, formally objected, challenged what was being placed before Council and voted against the unfunded budget.
We brought to light the irregularities that enabled the fight that followed.
The Matjhabeng Community Forum took that fight to Court. The judgment now demonstrates exactly why our scrutiny mattered.
Having the numbers to push an item through Council by majority vote does not provide legal immunity against prima facie non-compliance with the law.
The ANC had the majority to carry these decisions. But a majority vote cannot cure a defective process, substitute compliance with the law or place a Council decision beyond judicial scrutiny.
The Court has now recorded serious concerns about the process followed in adopting the IDP and budget and the Municipality’s justification for the 25% water tariff increase.
These are no longer merely the uncomfortable questions the DA raised in Council. They are concerns now recorded in a judgment of the High Court.
That judgment forces the next uncomfortable question:
What does this mean for Matjhabeng’s Financial Recovery Plan?
If the FRP’s revenue projections relied on the 25% increase now suspended by the Court, those projections must be revisited.
If COGTA or Treasury gave concurrence, endorsement or assessment based on the budget and the financial assumptions flowing from it, what happens to that position
A recovery plan is only as credible as the assumptions on which it is built.
Those consequences must reach residents’ accounts. The suspended increase must stop, affected accounts must be corrected and the appropriate credits must be passed.
Then there is the R250 plus VAT Basic Water Service Charge now appearing on accounts.
Where was this charge specifically deliberated upon, approved and subjected to public participation?
The DA will demand the Council record and public participation record supporting it. If Matjhabeng cannot demonstrate that it had lawful authority to charge residents the R250 basic water service fee, the municipality should stop charging the fee and refund or credit residents for amounts already charged.
This judgment is a small but important win for residents. But the people of Matjhabeng cannot continue spending their time, money and energy fighting to undo damage after it has already been done.
We should not need court applications, objections and months of oversight to force a government to do what it was elected to do in the first place: serve the people of Matjhabeng.
The people of Matjhabeng already pay too much for too little. They deserve a government that fixes the town instead of forcing residents to fight the decisions that are breaking it.
The ANC has used its majority to govern Matjhabeng for itself instead of its people. The answer cannot forever be to fight each bad decision after the majority has already pushed it through.
The next election gives residents the opportunity to change that.
The ANC may have the numbers to win a vote in Council. It does not have the numbers to outvote the law.
Now Matjhabeng’s residents have the power to break the majority and vote DA on the 4th of November.