The Legal Resources Centre, on behalf of a member of seven traditional communities in Limpopo, is challenging the imposition of taxes, levies, and rates by traditional councils in the province. Nkuzi Development Trust is the twelfth applicant. The applicants are asking the court to declare that the provision in the Limpopo Traditional Authorities Act that empowers traditional councils to levy compulsory taxes on community members is unconstitutional and inconsistent with customary law.
The applicants say that, despite the widespread poverty in many traditional communities, they are required to pay annual fees and specific fees from time to time for anything from a traditional ceremony to the chief’s car. If they fail to pay, they are punished by the traditional council through the refusal to provide proof of address letters, residential stands or burial sites. The Constitution only empowers government to raise revenue through compulsory and universal taxation.
The applicants also argue that customary law has never included compulsory charges to be levied on community members. Instead, the power of taxation for traditional leaders was introduced by the colonial government and pursued by the apartheid government. The continued practice of enforcing these taxes is a purely colonial practice.
The traditional councils, the Premier of Limpopo and the MEC for Traditional Affairs and Cooperative Governance in Limpopo all oppose the relief. They are all in agreement that customary law does not allow for compulsory levies – only voluntary ones agreed to in consultation with the community. However, they insist that all the levies in Limpopo are both voluntary and the result of a community consultation. Yet they are unable to provide any evidence of these allegations.
By contrast, the applicants relate the stories of hardship caused by this practice.
Mr Ernest Boima from Modjadji village near Tzaneen was an applicant in this matter, but he sadly passed away during the litigation. His son, Martin, told the court how his family was refused a burial site for Mr Boima because he had outstanding levies, and how they were forced to borrow money to pay these taxes hastily to be able to bury their father. Mr Alfred Mafikeng was visited by the police for not paying his levies, while Ms Mamila Rose Baloyi was not able to get a proof of address letter to apply for an identity document, because she had levies outstanding.
The applicants say that these levies are not voluntary contributions, but compulsory taxes that, if unpaid, leads to sanctions. They say that these taxes are used as a tool of oppression against community members such as the applicants.
Furthermore, the applicants also request a declaration that the Limpopo Traditional Councils are illegitimate as they have failed to hold required elections for legal constitution over the past two decades.
The matter came before before Deputy Judge President Semenya in the Polokwane High Court on the 15th May 2023

A range of community consultations on traditional leadership laws have highlighted how tribal levies are a pressing issue. These levies are compulsory fees charged by traditional authorities from members of rural communities. They can take the form of either a fixed annual sum or ad hoc amounts for specific purposes.
A particular complaint by communities has been the withholding of “proof of address” letters by traditional leaders on the basis of non-payment of levies. “Proof of address” letters, required by the Department of Home Affairs and other institutions, are crucial for people to exercise basic citizenship rights, such as acquiring identity documents, or to access financial services by opening bank accounts.
This “double taxation” of rural people was a violently contested feature of the former Bantustan system. Although the Traditional Leadership and Governance Framework Act does not expressly allow tribal levies, some ambiguity is created by a provision of the Act that requires traditional councils to meet at least once a year to give account of the “levies received”.
Three of the provincial statutes enacted in terms of the Framework Act declare levies unlawful but allow for “voluntary contributions”, while another three are silent on the matter. The Limpopo Act No. 6 of 2005 is the only piece of legislation that specifically authorises the levying of a compulsory traditional council rate.

​The constitutionality of this act is now being challenged in Limpopo in a case brought by LandNNES member the Nkuzi Development Association.