Water rip-off

REPORTERS should ask Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille more questions instead of accepting her statements at face value (“Drought levy now a reality”, Cape Argus, January 10).

The figures quoted in the report seem to have been a thumb-suck: 52 510 people will pay R150 while the majority will pay less than R47 a month. “Only 464 216 households out of a total of 707 814 would be affected by the charge.” Really? Pull the other one! How does the City of Cape Town calculate these figures. Philip Bam, chairman of the Greater Cape Town Civic Alliance, is correct that the municipality has long been using a flawed business model to calculate homeowners’ rates, and they are applying the same flawed process to the water charges.

What Bam doesn’t say is that for years the municipality has been trading in water and electricity to make money to help pay the salaries of the city’s employees, and, of course, the executive. They also sell the water to smaller nearby municipalities at a profit.

The City of Cape Town has been charging way above the inflation rate for water (and electricity). The Cape Chamber of Commerce and Industry has noted: “In 2009 the official CPI increased by 7.1%, while the water tariff was increased by 11.7%. In 2011 the CPI was 5%. Water went up by 8.28% and in 2016 the CPI was 6.8%. Water went up by 9.75%.”

So it is no surprise that residents are struggling to pay their rates. The municipality has a cash cow in residents and they are prepared to milk them as much a possible.

Without getting too technical, the CPI refers to the rate of inflation based on a standard package of goods and services which South African households buy for daily use. The CPI SAwebsite shows that the CPI for November 2017 is, in round figures, 4.4%.

De Lille is quoted in your report as saying they received 45 000 comments on the proposal. We have seen many in favour. There are also those who complain but say that paying a drought levy is better than queueing for water.

In the interests of transparent government that De Lille and company so often boast about, they should have those comments published in all the newspapers, unedited, for everyone to see. Oh, and what about the R1 billion in water revenue that has been written off.

In 2010 CPI was 4.3% but water tariffs increased by 10%.

In 2011 the CPI was 5%. Water went up by 8.28%.

In 2012 the CPI was 5.6%. Water went up by 15.08%.

In 2013 the CPI was 5.7%. Water went up by 11.28%.

In 2014 the CPI was 6.1%, water went up by 9.53%.

In 2015 the CPI was 4.6%. Water went up by 11%.

In 2016 the CPI was 6.8%. Water went up by 9.75%.