City does not work for us

IT SEEMS that the City of Cape Town does not work for its residents despite its motto “This City Works for You”. Residents of Cape Town will be shocked once they see how the punitive charges implemented at the start of February will affect their pockets. An example will illustrate my point.

In our household we have done our bit to reduce our monthly water consumption from an initial 30kl, more than a year ago to 8kl this month. Using the level 6 water tariffs, our account for water for a period of 31 days would have been R61 inclusive of VAT. The sewerage bill would have been R39 and total bill for water and sewerage R100.

With the punitive rates, the same consumption over a similar period will increase the water bill to R282 while the sewerage amount will increase to R168, with a total bill of R450. This translates to a total increase of R350, effectively increasing my bill by 350%!

Most residents would have been better off had the City implemented the drought charge. The amount would have varied. No charge for properties valued less than R400 000 and R45 for properties valued at R800 000 to a few hundred rand for more expensive properties.

Even compliant residents whose water consumption is 6kl, will see their combined bill increase from R46 to R287, an increase of a whopping 524%. Why are they penalised too?

In conclusion, it seems that the city of Cape Town is working against compliant residents.

ADIEL ISMAIL

Mount View