The owners of smallholdings in the Sundra area (Delmas) achieved a major victory because the Victor Khanye Local Municipality decided at a special council meeting to reverse its recent, unfair reclassification of agricultural tariffs to residential tariffs.
In 2025, the Municipality reclassified all agricultural tariffs to residential tariffs, resulting in an excessive tariff increase of 300% per smallholding. To make matters worse, since March 2026, owners have been receiving bills backdated to July 2025.
The reversal of the decision follows months of unrelenting pressure from the Freedom Front Plus (VF Plus) and the local community.
The party pointed out to the Municipality that the prescribed public participation process had not been followed. Residents also approached the courts to apply legal pressure.
In addition, the matter was escalated to provincial level where the Freedom Front Plus MPL, Werner Weber, engaged directly with Mpumalanga’s MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA), Speed Mashilo.
This engagement, together with consultation with the Nkangala District Valuer, brought things to a head.
For affected residents, the way forward entails:
• Corrections to their accounts: All relevant and incorrect municipal accounts will be rectified.
• Investigation and reclassification: The Valuer will inspect all relevant properties. The former agricultural tariff will henceforth be levied on all qualifying properties.
• Supplementary valuation roll: When the investigation has been concluded, a supplementary valuation report will be prepared and circulated to determine the outcome for each property.
• Public participation and policy review: The Municipality has undertaken to review its tariff policy and to ensure that a proper public participation process is followed so that residents have the opportunity to lodge objections.
This preliminary victory demonstrates the power of a community that stands together and a party that addresses matters at the highest level.
Meanwhile, residents are urged to remain vigilant, seeing as the Municipality may very well try to reinstitute this same process strictly in accordance with the law within the next year.
