Tshwane metro and municipal manager guilty of contempt of court

The City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality and its municipal manager have been declared to be in contempt of court for non-compliance with a court order related to the city’s failure to provide regular and accurate billing accounts to two property holding companies.

Acting Judge Dingenus van den Bogert issued a punitive cost order against the metro, noting in his judgment handed down in the High Court in Pretoria that a punitive costs award is warranted.

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“It is crucial to uphold the integrity of the judicial system and to ensure that contempt of a court order is not tolerated,” said Van den Bogert.

“Such conduct not only threatens the rule of law but erodes public trust in the judiciary. Continued non-compliance with court orders imperils judicial authority.

“The disregard of judicial authority must be condemned and denounced in the strongest possible terms,” he said.

However, Van den Bogert refused the request by Uniqon Developer (Pty) Ltd and Uniqon Wonings (Pty) Ltd for the Tshwane municipal manager to be ordered to pay a fine of R100 000, suspended for 30 days subject to the municipal manager complying with the obligations set out in two paragraphs of a high court order issued on 16 October 2023.

Van den Bogert said he has no intention of imposing a fine on the municipal manager in his official capacity because then the taxpayer bears the brunt for his disobedience.

However, he said that should the municipal manager persist with this egregious conduct, there is nothing that stops Uniqon Developer and Uniqon Wonings bringing another contempt application against the municipal manager in his personal capacity and seek a sanction against him personally.

“That will be fair, because then he can raise his own defences,” he said.

Van den Bogert ordered the metro and the municipal manager to comply with the 16 October 2023 court order “in full” by 16 January 2026 and to file an affidavit by the same date explaining why the municipal manager:

• Elected to disregard the court order; and
• Refused to comply with the order in not delivering an affidavit as envisaged in that order.

“Should the municipality and the municipal manager persist with their failure to comply with the court order, the applicant [Uniqon Developer and Uniqon Wonings] is granted leave to join the municipal manager in his or her personal capacity and seek such relief against him/her personally as circumstances permit,” he said.

The court order that was ignored

The 16 October 2023 court order declared that the metro breached its statutory obligations in terms of the Local Government: Municipal Property Rates Act and Section 95 of the Local Government: Municipal Systems Act.

This was because it failed to provide Uniqon Developer and Uniqon Wonings with regular and accurate municipal accounts stipulating the amounts due and the calculation basis for the amount claimed.

The two property holding companies specialise in commercial, residential and retail property developments in Tshwane and Johannesburg and have the same executive board and shareholding,

In addition, the metro failed to promptly reply and take corrective action on complaints submitted by Uniqon Developer and Uniqon Wonings regarding their municipal accounts and to address and resolve disputes lodged by the companies in terms of the Systems Act concerning their municipal accounts.

Van den Borgert said the 16 October 2023 court order “constituted the culmination of many years of frustrations that the applicants experienced with the municipality, its officials and management”.

He said the contempt application is only concerned with the fact that the court order exists and has been disobeyed.

Van den Bogert said the existence of the court order is not disputed and it is agreed that both the Tshwane metro and municipal manager have knowledge of it.

Frustration

The judgment lists a number of attempts by Uniqon Developer and Uniqon Wonings to communicate with the Tshwane metro about the municipality’s failure to comply with the court order.

Van den Bogert said on 4 April 2024, another letter was sent requesting urgent feedback with a response received on 5 April from the municipality’s attorney explaining details of the efforts to process refunds and the expectation that this be completed by 12 April 2024.

But Van den Bogert said this did not happen and a further letter was sent on 16 April 2024, requesting urgent feedback by 19 April 2024.

He said until then, there was no compliance with the court order and not one single item listed in the court order was addressed.

This resulted in the contempt application being issued.

Van den Bogert said that “to make matters worse, being faced with the contempt application, the municipality and the municipal manager did nothing at all”.

“When the matter was eventually set down for hearing on the unopposed roll of 18 February 2025, a notice of intention to oppose was filed the day before that hearing.

“This court then had to issue an order directing the respondents [Tshwane metro] to pay the costs on a punitive scale and to file papers within 15 days,” he said.

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Van den Bogert said not only has the municipal manager chosen to ignore the court order prior to this contempt application but there was “an astonishing insistence in such ignorance after the application was served”.

He said apart from the fact that it is confirmed that there is presently only partial compliance, the explanation why nothing happened “lacks probity, since the resource capacity excuse, with little evidence, only came about when the shoe pinched” and the fact that the municipal manager did not file an affidavit remains unexplained.

“It follows, that the applicant must be successful with its application insofar as an order for contempt is sought,” he said.

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