COMPANY DEREGISTERED: WHO GETS THE OWNERLESS PROPERTY?
Matjhabeng Local Municipality v McDonald and Others (4075/2020; 4077/2020; 4078/2020) [2021] ZAFSHC 34 (19 February 2021)
Deregistration of companies failing to comply with statutory requirements has become the order of the day, and the consequences of bona vacantia (ownerless property devolving to the State) is real. In this judgment, a municipality sought an order that those properties owned by the deregistered companies that also owed large sums in outstanding rates, be declared to belong to it. Not so, said the Court, as the decision remains with Treasury.
TAXPAYER FRUSTRATION VINDICATED
Kgetlengrivier Concerned Citizens and Another v Kgetlengrivier Local Municipality and Others (UM 271/2020) [2020] ZANWHC 95 (18 December 2020)
In a ‘feel-good’ judgment handed down in December last year, the judge ordered the imprisonment of the municipal manager of Kgetlengrivier (North West) province for 90 days, suspended on condition that raw sewage spilling into the Elands and Koster rivers be cleared up within 10 days. This followed after the residents had to make urgent plans to restore safe water supply to their homes.