Court ruling favours department on Market Related Rentals

This application was instituted by the police Union, Police and Prisons Civil Rights Union (POPCRU) on behalf of its members to set aside a decision to charge market related rental for state housing occupied by officials of the Gauteng Provincial Government. The court application by POPCRU was dismissed with costs.

The Court ruled that “the decision to levy Market Related Rentals (MRR) was taken by the department as Landlord (Lessor) and not as an Employer. In other words, this is a matter between landlord and tenants, not Employer and Employee”.

In welcoming the judgment, Gauteng MEC for Infrastructure Development, Bheki Nkosi said: “This is a landmark judgment for my department, which will go a long way in assisting the department to implement market related rentals”.

This action by POPCRU came after the department issued a notice of intention to charge market related rental to all occupants of state houses. This notice was issued on 24 February 2009.

In terms of this notice, the MRR implementation was scheduled to commence on 01 August 2009. It also implied that new lease agreements were to be entered into between the occupants and the department as the landlord, beginning from 1 June 2010. Also in terms of the notice, anyone declining this offer was to vacate the property by the 31 May 2010.

The court also ruled that “in so far as individual cases, and other individual applicants who occupy housing other than state housing, the rental applicable to them can be determined by departmental policy and would accordingly be excluded from the ambit of the collective bargaining”.

The department will now make application to the court to secure the Declaratory Order before it can implement the Market Related Rentals. This will prevent those (potential applicants) who were not part of POPCRU case to make another attempt to stop the department from implementing this. 

Enquiries:
Philemon Motshwaedi
Tel: 011 355-5105
Cell: 083 648 6870
E-mail: Philemon.Motshwaedi@gauteng.gov.za