Msunduzi Municipality v Member of the Executive Council of KwaZulu-Natal Province for Housing

The Premier of KwaZulu-Natal was the registered owner of immovable property within the jurisdiction of Msunduzi Municipality. The property was administered by the MEC for Housing for development of low-income housing. The MEC contended that the property was exempt from municipal rates under s 3(3)(a) of the Rating of State Property Act 79 of 1984, on the basis that it was State property held in trust for inhabitants of the area. The Municipality disputed this. The property had previously been owned by the South African Development Trust (SADT), a racially based statutory trust abolished in 1992 under the Abolition of Racially Based Land Measures Act 108 of 1991. After abolition, the property vested in the State and was later transferred to the Premier. The High Court granted a declaratory order in favour of the MEC, finding that the trust survived abolition. The Municipality appealed to the Supreme Court of Appeal.

The appeal was upheld. The declaratory order granted by the Natal Provincial Division was set aside, and the MEC’s application for exemption from municipal rates was dismissed.

The case clarifies the meaning of 'State property held in trust' under the Rating of State Property Act and confirms that governmental obligations to use land for public benefit do not amount to a trust. It affirms that racially based statutory trusts under apartheid legislation did not survive repeal unless expressly preserved, reinforcing principles of statutory interpretation and post-apartheid legal transformation.