Johannesburg - Joburg residents can expect some good and some bad tariff increases from July 1.
The increase for a 500 square metre Parkhurst house with two people, a pool and appliances will be 11 percent.
However, the downside is that if you use more power, water, and if your house is larger and more expensive, you will pay more.
“This increase of 11 percent is too high and needs to be objected to,” said ward councillor Tim Truluck.
The increases are:
* Property rates - all increase by 5.9 percent.
* Domestic electricity - prepaid 8.1 percent depending on usage.
* Domestic electricity - post-paid 7.1 percent depending on usage.
* Sewer charges - 13.9 percent.
* Water charges - from 6 to 14.9 percent.
* Penalty water charges during level 2 water restrictions - from 10 to 30 percent depending on usage.
* Pikitup charges - between 17.6 percent and 128.5 percent depending on the valuation of the property.
“Basically, anything to do with water, poop and trash is going up way too high with no chance of mitigating the high costs, except maybe in water usage. And we are just paying more and more and not getting any value for money. Our rivers remain polluted, our sewers are still overloaded, our water infrastructure still leaks like a sieve, our streets are not cleaned properly and our trash collection is sporadic due to illegal strikes,” said Truluck.
Tony de Munnik, chairman of the I Love Kensington Association, said he was very concerned.
“We are already under pressure with property prices dropping dramatically since the Rhodes Park murders in October last year, so these above-inflation increases are going to hurt people hard,” he said.
City of Joburg spokesman Virgil James said residents were encouraged to lodge their objections at www.joburg.org.za.
“We take all objections into consideration before submitting the tariff increases to the council for approval. It is not true that we ignore them,” he said.
Brett McDougall, chairman of the Norwood Orchards Ratepayers’ Association, said on Tuesday morning that the middle class was paying the price for the city’s ineptitude.
“The city has written off millions of rand in bad debt. Raising the tariffs to this degree is an easy way for it to cover the city’s problems,” he said.
Residents have until Saturday to comment, approve or object.
This follows enormous outrage at the proposed Pikitup increases announced last week which reach up to 128 percent for properties over the value of R5 million.
The Star