City of Cape Town blocks potential national government funding in defence of rates hikes
Joint statement by the Cape Independence Party (CAPEXIT) and the Cape Independence Advocacy Group (CIAG).
The City of Cape Town has rejected an application by the Cape Independence Party (CAPEXIT) to be admitted as an Amicus Curiae in the matter between the South African Property Owners Association (SAPOA) vs The City of Cape Town (CoCT). SAPOA had already consented to the application.
CAPEXIT wished to advance the argument that section 214 of the Constitution compels revenue to be distributed equitably between the various spheres of government and must take into account each sphere’s need to provide services. Accordingly, CAPEXIT then wished to assert that, by the City’s own admission, this clearly wasn’t the case and that precisely because it wasn’t the case, the City had elected to apply rates increases many times greater than inflation and to create other dubious charges. Cape Town ratepayers are then expected to pick up the bill. It is precisely these unjust and excessive charges which SAPOA is challenging in its case against the City.
Unusually, but not improperly, CAPEXIT had asked for the Western Cape High Court to make an additional order for relief. Where SAPOA were asking that the City’s new tariffs be declared unlawful, unconstitutional, and invalid, CAPEXIT sought an additional order that the current allocation of revenue to the City of Cape Town was inadequate and therefore unconstitutional.
CAPEXIT is therefore astounded that the City chose to block the application. In doing so, the City has directly and knowingly prevented the Court from ordering that the City should receive more funds. Instead the City has signalled that it would rather obtain the money from ratepayers who they know are already up in arms over the issue.
CAPEXIT leader, Jack Miller, said, “It is simply incomprehensible that the City would prefer to overburden ratepayers with excessive and unjust charges rather than to allow the court to compel that the City must receive a greater share of revenue from the national fiscus. We have long argued that the division of revenue for both the City and Western Cape Province is unjust, and Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis has publicly conceded that Cape Town is chronically and unjustly underfunded. This is the worst of politics.”
CAPEXIT will now meet with its lawyers before deciding how to respond.
The CIAG’s legal team has assisted CAPEXIT in preparing its Amicus application.
DATE: 01 August 2025
