- Flower Foundation challenged electricity charges dating back to March 2015 after faulty municipal meters inflated its account.
- Judge B Breedenkamp found the City failed to comply with a court order requiring it to investigate and resolve the dispute.
- The court ruled the historic electricity debt had prescribed and ordered Tshwane to correct the municipal account.
A decade-long electricity billing dispute has exposed serious failures in the City of Tshwane’s handling of municipal accounts, with the High Court in Pretoria finding that the municipality failed to properly investigate inflated charges billed to a retirement home.
Flower Foundation Pretoria Homes for the Aged brought the application after years of disputing electricity charges linked to faulty municipal meters installed at its premises. Judge B Breedenkamp said the case was about the City’s failure to honour its legal duty to fairly resolve a billing dispute.
Faulty meters inflated the account
The dispute arose from electricity charges billed between March 2015 and April 2016. The foundation formally lodged its dispute in May 2018, arguing that incorrect meter readings and tariffs had substantially inflated its municipal account.
The court heard that Tshwane admitted its original smart meter applied incorrect tariffs. A replacement municipal meter also malfunctioned during the disputed period, and another replacement meter continued charging incorrect tariffs, leaving the retirement home paying for inaccurate electricity consumption.
The City failed to resolve the dispute
In August 2024, the parties agreed to a court order requiring Tshwane to investigate the dispute within 30 days, resolve it and correct the municipal account where necessary. The City was also prohibited from disconnecting electricity while the matter remained unresolved, provided the Foundation continued paying its current monthly usage.
Tshwane argued that it had already provided an outcome and claimed the Foundation’s ongoing payments interrupted prescription. Judge Breedenkamp rejected that argument after finding there was no evidence that the promised investigation had ever been completed.
“There is no indication that after 2 October 2024, further meetings were held and an active investigation of the electricity account were undertaken,” Judge Breedenkamp said.
Historic municipal debt cannot last forever
The court found that Tshwane never instituted legal proceedings to recover the disputed electricity charges. As a result, the debt prescribed and could no longer be enforced.
Judge Breedenkamp also rejected the municipality’s reliance on its internal billing policy, saying administrative rules could not prevent prescription from running on disputed electricity debt.
The court ordered the City to write off the prescribed charges for the period between March 2015 and April 2016, correct the Foundation’s municipal account within 15 days and pay attorney and client costs.
It also found Tshwane in contempt of court, imposing a 30-day prison sentence suspended for 14 days to allow the municipality to comply with the order.
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