The Western Cape Government has spent almost R200 million fighting court battles over the past seven years.
This is according to official documents tabled in the provincial legislature by Premier Alan Winde in response to a written question from MPL Ayanda Bans.
The question asked how much the province had spent on litigation from 2019 up to 2025, which departments were spending the most, whether the state was suing or being sued, and what each case cost.
According to the official breakdown, the province spent:
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R32.3m in 2019;
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R24.7m in 2020;
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R25.3m in 2021;
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R26.6m in 2022;
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R28.5m in 2023;
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R35.3m in 2024; and
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R26.7m in 2025.
The annexure attached to the reply runs to 76 pages and lists thousands individual matters across provincial departments.
The cases ranged from labour disputes and eviction matters to damages claims, contractual disputes, reviews, interdicts, arbitration and medico-legal claims.
Medico-legal claims are legal cases brought against the health department or a hospital over alleged medical negligence.
The health department carried a large share of the legal load followed by its education counterpart.
Infrastructure, social development, local government and other departments appear repeatedly throughout the documents.
In many of the matters, the provincial government was the defendant or respondent — meaning it was being sued.
In other cases, it approached the courts itself as the applicant or plaintiff.
Some cases have been finalised and archived.
Others remain ongoing, which means legal costs are still increasing.
The ANC provincial legislature caucus condemned what it described as a “litigation spree”, slamming the more than R199.4m spent on litigation over that period.
“This means Winde’s administration spends close to R25m every year fighting legal battles instead of fixing the real crises facing our people,” Bans, the party’s Chief Whip, said.
“In a province drowning in violent crime, unemployment, poverty, gender-based violence and youth despair, the DA has chosen courtrooms over communities.
“This litigation bill is not about justice, it is about defending bad decisions, persecuting individuals, evicting the poor and protecting elite interests.”
She said millions had been wasted by the education department on the Wesley Neumann saga.
Neumann was the principal of Heathfield High School and was dismissed in 2021 after a Covid-19 era dispute over school reopening.
He has been fighting his dismissal in labour and court proceedings for years.
A January 2026 Labour Court ruling overturned the dismissal and replaced it with a written warning, but the provincial education department has applied for leave to appeal.
Bans said money was also wasted by the human settlements department on evicting residents from informal settlements.
“This is not clean governance. It is arrogance in power,” she said.
Her DA counterpart, Gillion Bosman said Bans’ outrage would carry more weight if it had been “accompanied by proportion and precision”.
“R199.4m over [seven] years is not a ‘litigation spree’,” he said.
“It is the cumulative cost of defending constitutional mandates, responding to medico-legal claims, and upholding lawful decisions in a province with a R240bn annual budget.
“Context matters, because on average, this represents a fraction of a percent of total provincial expenditure.”
He said the government had not been able to opt out of court when its decisions were challenged.
“In a constitutional democracy, policies on housing, education, land use, health, and infrastructure are regularly tested,” Bosman said.
“Defending those decisions is not arrogance; it is a legal obligation.
“Walking away from litigation would mean abandoning lawful policy, exposing the public purse to default judgments, and undermining accountability.
“Medico-legal claims in health, for example, are a national trend affecting every province.
“The real question is whether the Western Cape acts within the law, manages litigation responsibly, and continues delivering services despite legal challenges.”
He added: “Throwing around a headline number without ratios, categories, or outcomes may score a press quote.
“It does not constitute serious oversight.”
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Brandon Nel
iol.co.za