Durban’s ratepayers will have to fork out more than R30m to an electrical company which claimed it lost out on contracts after it was “blacklisted” from any tenders at the behest of an allegedly crooked official.

In a recent ruling, Durban high court acting judge Murray Pitman directed the eThekwini municipality to pay Daily Double Trading (trading as Pholobas Projects) R30m plus interest from February 2018. Pitman also ordered the city to pay the company’s legal costs.

The dispute has a rocky past and has been before several judges over the past four years...