High Court declares exclusive Afrikaner township in Pretoria illegal

The High Court in Pretoria on Friday declared the exclusive Afrikaner township of Kleinfontein in the east of Pretoria illegal and ruled that those living in the 650-odd houses there are acting illegally.

The directors of Kleinfontein Aandeleblok (Edms) Bpk have been acting illegally by allowing shareholders to use the land it owns for residential purposes without complying with several legal requirements, the court found.

It ordered the City of Tshwane to “immediately take appropriate steps to enforce all relevant laws relating to planning and building regulation in as far as it relates to the farms comprising the Kleinfontein settlement”.

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While criminal prosecution is one option open to the council, the court refrained from dictating which remedy the local authority should implement.

Where it started

Kleinfontein is a substantial settlement on land zoned for agricultural use.

It was established by the Boere-Vryheidsbeweging in the late 1990s as a “growth point for Afrikaner self-determination” and consists of at least 650 houses, a school, a community hall, a shopping centre, an old age home, and a light industrial area.

The land has, however, never been rezoned and subdivided, and no building plans have been passed by the local authority. The board of Kleinfontein Aandeleblok, which manages the community, provides basic services.

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It uses groundwater, and electricity is supplied by Eskom at an increased tariff to cover its cost.

Residents buy shares in the company and are then allocated a section of the property for their use. 

Although not addressed in the judgment, it is known that Kleinfontein has been underpaying hugely on its property rates, and the cash-strapped City of Tshwane has done little to address this over the years. 

Cause of dispute

The ruling stems from a dispute between four shareholders and the directors of Kleinfontein Aandeleblok. The shareholders are unhappy with Kleinfontein’s continued expansion, which impacts the level of service delivery to those already living there. 

They have been vocal in the community about the non-compliance and have encouraged other shareholders to withhold their levies that are payable to Kleinfontein Aandeleblok.

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They asked the court to interdict Kleinfontein Aandeleblok from further expanding the settlement until laws relating to planning and building regulations have been complied with. 

In this regard, the court found as follows: 

It argued that the City of Tshwane is the authority that should enforce the relevant laws, “not the applicants”.

In terms of a counter-application by Kleinfontein Aandeleblok, the court interdicted the four shareholders from inducing other shareholders “to withhold levies raised in terms of the applicant’s memorandum of incorporation”.

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It emphasised that this order does not preclude the four shareholders from voicing their numerous concerns over how the directors of Kleinfontein Aandeleblok manage the settlement. 

‘Illegalities have a wider impact’

Lex Middelberg, member of the Tshwane council for the Republican Conference of Tshwane, says the illegalities in Kleinfontein have a wider impact.

“I live on a smallholding two properties from Kleinfontein and get my water from a fountain on my property. This used to be the main fountain on the farm Donkerhoek, but it has run dry.” 

Middelberg ascribes this to the extensive use of groundwater in Kleinfontein, which is partly situated on sections of the original farm Donkerhoek. 

He says Kleinfontein is currently levied as farm land for the purposes of property rates. It should be levied for unpermitted use, which is nine times more.

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“Other residents of Tshwane are subsidising Kleinfontein, but we don’t have money [as a city] to fix our roads or make provision for continued water supply when Rand Water cuts its supply to do maintenance.”

In 2021, Mare-Lize Fourie, then-DA member of the mayoral committee for finance, said the city was taking legal action against Kleinfontein regarding its non-compliance, but this has so far come to nought. 

In February, when addressing Tshwane’s financial difficulties, Mayor Cilliers Brink addressed the underrecovery of property rates and said Kleinfontein would have to pay its dues.

Andre Zybrands, a professional valuer, earlier said he did a valuation of the Kleinfontein property in 2014 and even then, the property rates if correctly calculated, would have run into millions. 

This article was republished from Moneyweb. Read the original here