Afrikaner lobby group AfriForum is elated that the City of Tshwane will comply with last week’s ruling by the Pretoria High Court which compels the Metro to scrap the controversial R194 Cleansing Levy.
“AfriForum is quite pleased with the City of Tshwane’s decision to abide by the High Court’s order and this is something they should have done from the very beginning when AfriForum warned them that the so-called cleansing levy is illegal and should therefore not be implemented,” said the lobby group’s District Coordinator in Greater Pretoria South Arno Roodt.
Roodt lamented the fact that despite his organisation’s earlier successful challenge against the Metro’s implementation of the levy in court, the Metro forged ahead to charge the residents of Tshwane in this regard.
“But we are happy that the cleansing levy matter has come to an end now, thanks to AfriForum’s latest court application which ensures that residents of Tshwane now have a legal a certainty on this matter,” enthused Roodt.
“What we are concerned about now is the City of Tshwane’s claim that service delivery and the City’s big plan and drive for a clean and safe City would be hampered by AfriForum’s court success, because this is simply not true as the budget remains fully-funded and the City will continue with service delivery as was initially planned,” he said.
“AfriForum stands by its position to protect the rights of residents and ratepayers of Tshwane,” said Roodt emphatically.
Though pledging to abide by the Pretoria High Court’s ruling, City of Tshwane Spokesperson Lindela Mashigo released the following media statement:
“The judgement represents a significant setback in the City of Tshwane’s efforts to recover operational costs of maintaining a clean and healthy environment for all communities within the City of Tshwane.”
He added that “the cleansing levy was designed to ensure that the households using private refuse collection methods also contribute their fair share to citywide cleansing services.”
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