The ruling by the Western Cape High Court declaring the City of Cape Town’s fixed tariffs for city-wide cleansing, water and sanitation in the 2025/26 budget unlawful and invalid confirms what the Freedom Front Plus (VF Plus) has been saying all along.
The Court ordered that these tariffs be set aside with effect from 30 June 2026 and instructed the City to pay the legal costs of the applicants, including the South African Property Owners’ Association (Sapoa) and AfriForum.
The Freedom Front Plus strongly opposed the tariff structure from the outset, warning that linking fixed charges to property values is both unfair and unconstitutional.
Tariffs should be based on actual consumption and services rendered, not on the market value of a property. In effect, this system amounted to an additional property tax in disguise, which disproportionately penalised working- and middle-class residents who are already under financial strain due to rising costs.
The judgment demonstrates that the DA-led administration in Cape Town failed to strike an appropriate balance between revenue generation and the fair treatment of ratepayers.
The Freedom Front Plus will keep fighting for municipal tariffs to be fair and transparent, so that residents are not needlessly taxed.
The party calls on the City to fully comply with the Court’s ruling and to introduce, in the next budget, a fair and legally compliant tariff structure following the principle of consumption-based service delivery.
