Durban - ON July 1, ratepayers in eThekwini Municipality will be paying more for services as tariff increases – the highest among the main metros – come into effect.
On learning that the city’s tariff increases were the highest when compared to the City of Cape Town and the City of Johannesburg, Durban ratepayers described the tariffs being charged by the municipality as “criminal”, saying there was no justification for such increases. But the municipality defended itself yesterday, saying no city had been battered by disasters like Durban had.
EThekwini marginally reduced the tariff increases it had initially proposed on its draft budget following fierce objection by community members who took unprecedented action, including marching to the Durban City Hall to voice their displeasure about the increases.
However water tariffs remained the same as the city said the factors driving the increase were beyond its control. The tariff increases for eThekwini are:
- Electricity tariff increase of 18.49%.
- Sanitation tariff increase of 10.9% for domestic and 11.9% for business.
- Refuse tariff increase of 6.9%.
- Water will increase by 14.9%.
- Property rates will rise by 7.9%
For the City of Cape Town average tariffs will increase by 17.60% for electricity, 8.60% for water, sanitation by 8.60% and refuse by 5.5%, while property rates for residential properties will decrease by 1.1%.
For the City of Joburg, the rates increase is 2%; the city had initially proposed 5.3% but reduced it after input from property owners. Electricity increase is 14.97%, water 9.3%, sanitation is 9.30% and refuse is 7%.
Chatsworth Civic and District Federation chairperson Teddy Govender said: “The tariffs charged in eThekwini are criminal and there is no justification for the amounts charged. The services provided are pathetic.”
Asad Gaffer of the Westville Ratepayers’ Association, which has threatened legal action against the municipality over the tariffs, said: “Of course we are not happy. Ratepayers are being forced to pay for mismanagement.”
Ish Prahladh, president of the eThekwini Ratepayers and Residents’ Association, said these were desperate times for residents.
“First of all, the municipality had meetings all over eThekwini regarding these tariff increases. All the ratepayers objected, but according to eThekwini, most of the ratepayers did not object to the tariff increases.”
EThekwini Municipality’s head of communications, Lindiwe Khuzwayo, said the metro could not account for how budgets were decided in other cities, “but we can assure residents ours is a balanced budget that responds to the service delivery and socio-economic needs of the people of eThekwini”.
“Other metros or cities have not had to contend with the catastrophic disasters our city dealt with. When we decided on our budget we took into consideration the tough economic climate and the said disasters that have plagued our city,” she said.
“We also took into consideration the financial plight experienced by our residents, which led to us revising down the tariffs that were contained in our initial draft budget that was tabled at the end of March 2023.”
Khuzwayo said the decision to revise the tariffs was also informed by the engagements the city had with various communities and stakeholders.