Eastern Cape taxpayers will have to pay almost double a debt of R6.6m that the provincial health department failed to pay a security company since 2013.
The debt to Red Alert TSS for security services at the Mthatha Hospital Complex has ballooned to more than R12m as a result of the department dragging its heels.
The Bhisho High Court ruled against the department on Thursday.
The two parties entered into a 24-month contract before 2013 that entitled Red Alert to R636,780 a month for its services.
The contract was extended from time to time, and lapsed in 2013 on June 30.
Red Alert TSS had submitted invoices for work done over 53 months.
In its court submissions, the department acknowledged that it was supposed to pay Red Alert R15.2m in total, but disputed that it was also liable for VAT.
It also submitted that some of the invoices had already been settled, while others had been duplicated.
Judge Igna Stretch ordered health MEC Helen Sauls-August “to make payment to the plaintiff in the sum of R6.45m”.
The department was also ordered to pay interest on R2.391m and “applicable mora interest” on the balance of R4.060m, calculated from November 19 2014 to the date of payment.
In September provincial premier Phumulo Masualle cautioned the departments of health and education over their enormous legal bills.
Health had to settle a R260m legal bill for the financial year that ended in March, the Daily Dispatch reported at the time.
Reacting to the judgment, Mathew Moodley of Mathew Moodley & Associates, who represented Red Alert, said it had been a long and arduous road, fraught with delays and “interlocutory skirmishes”.
Moodley said their calculations showed the interest to date was in excess of R3.8m.
He said: “justice has ultimately prevailed”.
Health spokesperson Lwandile Sicwetsha said he would check with the legal services office to ascertain whether they had seen the judgment.
“They will advise us on whether to appeal the decision or not,” said Sicwetsha.
Red Alert’s Mark Benkenstein could not be reached for comment as he was in a meeting.