Equality | The Pretoria v Walker Case

The Court held unanimously that the cross-subsidisation involved in white neighbourhoods paying more for their water and electricity did not amount to unfair discrimination. The majority of the Court, however, signed on to a judgment by Deputy Chief Justice Pius Langa to the effect that a policy to take court proceedings against people in affluent areas, while adopting a more lenient approach to defaulters in the townships, did amount to indirect unlawful racial discrimination against white people. In a lone dissent Justice Sachs held that people in the white areas were not being targeted for living in those areas or for being white. People in black areas were living in grossly under-resourced circumstances. The council policy of encouraging them to move away from a culture of defiance against payment for inferior services, was contextually justifiable and did not prejudice the occupants of the affluent areas.