By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The Western Cape High Court has dismissed the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) urgent application seeking the suspension of the fuel levy increase that is set to take effect from June 4.
EFF filed papers to block a fuel levy increase announced eight days earlier during the Minister of Finance’s Budget 3.0 tabling.
The case makes an unusual use of Rule 53 of the Uniform Rules of Court — a procedural mechanism regularly used to challenge administrative decisions — to challenge a fiscal measure introduced by the Treasury in Budget 3.0.
“We took this action after repeated efforts to caution the minister and appeal to his conscience failed,” said the party in a statement issued on the same day, stating that an increase without a Money Bill “risks the entire national Budget being declared invalid by the courts”.
Though it hasn’t sparked the same political uproar as the aborted VAT hike, the fuel levy increase is just as important, as a fuel increase touches aspects of almost all supply chains, increasing costs across every facet of life.
The application had two parts: Part A seeking an urgent interdict halting the increase and Part B calling for a full review and potential nullification of the decision.
During the proceedings, Advocate Mfesane Ka-Siboto, representing the EFF in court, argued that the minister’s decision lacked both rationality and parliamentary oversight.
“There’s no instrument that empowers the minister to do to what he has done,” he said.
Ka-Siboto told the court, in accordance with the Money Bills Amendment Procedure and Related Matters Act, only a law could serve as the proper instrument for the minister to impose a tax.
Advocate Kameel Premhid, representing Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana, argued that the EFF’s request for interim relief – to suspend the fuel levy increase – failed to consider the broader implications of such a decision.
Premhid also told the court that the Department of Mineral and Petroleum Resources should have been included as a respondent in the case, highlighting that any adverse ruling would have affected the department’s duties.
“They need lead time before the petrol price increases,” he said, emphasising that the exclusion of the department was “fatal” to the EFF’s application.
He further argued that the levy price increase in question did not constitute a tax but was, in fact, a regulation.
Reacting to the outcome, the EFF maintained that the levy increase was unlawful without a money bill.
“We maintain that taxation without representation is arbitrary and unconstitutional, and leaves room for abuse by the National Treasury, which is becoming increasingly desperate in the face of a collapsing economy,” the party’s statement reads.
The red berets said it will study the judgment in detail and “reserve our right to pursue further legal avenues”.
This was the second time Godongwana has been hauled to court. The EFF, with the help of the Government of National Unity (GNU) aligned DA, had previously successfully challenged the Value-Added Tax (VAT) increase in court.