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Court declares City of Joburg VIP policy unconstitutional and invalid

Umito
Court declares City of Joburg VIP policy unconstitutional and invalid

The court ruled that the city had failed to provide a threat assessment from the SAPS to justify the need to increase security for civil servants.

The Johannesburg High Court has ruled that the City of Joburg’s VIP policy of assigning ten bodyguards to the mayor and six vehicles to the mayor was unconstitutional and invalid.

However, the decision will only be implemented after six weeks, which will give the city time to justify its decision with an analysis of the threat.

Joburg High Court Justice Stuart Wilson delivered his judgment on Thursday, the first judgment of 2025.

Legal action

The Democratic Alliance (DA) in May last year challenged the controversial VIP policy which allows the mayor and other officials to have bodyguards and increased security in violation of the upper limits allowed.

The caps are part of the remuneration package for public office holders.

In its court filings, the DA asked the court to declare the VIP policy adopted by the City Council on March 20, 2024, illegal, invalid and unconstitutional.

At the time the resolution was passed, the practice was to provide the executive mayor with ten personal protection officers, the president with eight, and the MMCs and chairmen of two of his other committees with two to five personal protection officers.

ALSO READ: City of Johannesburg’s VIP policy taken to court

Judgement

Wilson ruled that the city had failed to provide a threat assessment from the SAPS to justify the need to increase security for public servants.

“The documents in this case suggest that the City Council might have thought it could obtain a threat assessment after passing and implementing the March 20, 2024 resolution. If the City Council thought that, it was wrong.

“It is easy to understand why this is so. The law and rulings aim to prevent the creation of armies of security guards surrounding public office holders, thereby isolating them from the people for whom they are appointed or elected.

“The value of public accountability is enshrined in Article 1(d) of the Constitution. It is a fundamental requirement of accountability that public office holders be reasonably accessible.

“They have no right to exist in a bubble of security, independent of the day-to-day concerns of the general public,” Wilson ruled.

VIP act

Wilson said the VIP Act and ministerial determinations recognize that a councilor is entitled to an enhanced security allowance where Saps determines that there is a threat to their security which cannot be met by the default provision levels set out in ministerial determinations.

“It is on this basis that the petitioner, the DA, asks me to declare the resolution of March 20, 2024 unconstitutional and invalid, and to cancel the personal protection allowances that it formalized.”

Decision welcomed

DA group leader in Johannesburg, Belinda Kayser-Echeozonjoku, welcomed the ruling.

“It was Joburg City DA councilors who raised the alarm about the VIP protection policy at council. The ANC-ActionSA-EFF-PA coalition ignored the issue raised by the DA that it violates constitutional upper limits.

“Once again we filed suit and won,” Echeozonjoku said on X.

The DA requested that Joburg MMC for Finance Magaret Arnolds pay the costs of the application in his personal capacity, however, Wilson said “no serious case has been made out for this relief”.

ALSO READ: DA accuses Joburg mayor of prioritizing bodyguards over service delivery