The Democratic Alliance in Tzaneen municipality will submit a motion at the next council sitting to investigate and identify officials responsible for legal fees amounting to R35.3 million due to protracted litigation tactics.
This follows multiple court losses, including the most recent ruling by the Polokwane High Court on 12 February 2025, which ordered the municipality to pay Malunga Tax Consultants an initial amount of R7.2 million; an amount that has since ballooned due to unnecessary litigation tactics.
Instead of fulfilling its financial obligations responsibly, the municipality intentionally dragged-out legal proceedings for over a decade by filing frivolous interlocutory applications and requesting repeated postponements. The Polokwane High Court severely criticized these tactics, making it clear that they served no purpose other than to obstruct justice at the expense of Tzaneen’s residents.
The Malunga Tax Consultants Case cost the municipality R20.3 million:
- The initial claim:R7.2 million
- Interest accrued due to delays: R5.7 million
- Municipality’s legal fees prior to the November 2024 hearing: R2.7 million
- Estimated legal fees for the November 2024 hearing: R1.2 million
- Estimated taxed costs of Malunga: R3.5 million
This is not an isolated incident. In November 2024, the Constitutional Court ruled in favour of Bravospan against the municipality for failure to pay for services rendered since 2013.
The original claim was only R2 million, but the municipality once again used delaying tactics to avoid payment, dragging the case through unnecessary legal battles.
The Constitutional Court held that: “Both the Supreme Court of Appeal and the High Court were agreed that, after close to a decade of waiting, Bravospan should receive compensation for the services that it provided to the Municipality. It cannot, therefore, be in the interests of justice to prolong this litigation and delay an award of compensation any longer.”
The financial implications in the Bravospan case ballooned from a R2 million claim to a R15 million liability for the municipality:
- Initial claim: R 2 million
- Estimated interest accrued due to delays: R2 million
- The municipality’s legal fees prior to the Constitutional Court judgment: R5 million
- The estimated legal fees for the Constitutional Court hearing: R 1 million
- Estimated taxed costs of Bravospan for all matters: R5 million
We will request a full breakdown of all legal costs incurred in these cases.
While residents are forced to navigate deteriorating, pothole riddled roads daily, millions are squandered on court battles instead of being invested in critical infrastructure maintenance.
The DA will fight to hold the Municipal Manager accountable for the failure to ensure cost effective litigation procedures and poor, ill-informed decisions at the expense of Tzaneen residents.