Refuse, water tariffs to increase by 5%

THE City of Cape Town's total budget for this year stands at R61.5 billion, mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis said as he tabled the draft budget for the 2022/2023 financial year.

This he said would be raised through “only inflation-related increases” on service tariffs. Tariffs on refuse will increase by 5%, water and sanitation by 5%, with an additional 1.5% specifically for expanding access to water to the poorest residents living in informal settlements.

“We are bound to a 9.5% increase in electricity tariffs this year – our only tariff increase that is substantially above inflation. R3.8 billion is set aside for capital expenditure in energy over the medium term. R1.2bn will be spent on the refurbishment and upgrade of the Steenbras Pumped Storage Scheme, our primary means of mitigating load shedding,” he said.

Among others, R2.8bn has been set aside for capital expenditure on housing over three years, R190 million for the rehabilitation of Rietvlei, Zandvlei, and Zeekoevlei, and R8bn would be spent on water and sanitation infrastructure in the next three years.

He said R7.8bn would go towards infrastructure and growth and R6.4bn to transport over the next three years.

Political parties expressed disappointment in the budget, with the EFF in the Cape Metro rejecting it outright, saying it was a “misdirection of funds”, where poor black people “residing in concentration camps are still at the receiving end”.

“We have seen the plight of homelessness due to the dire state of Covid19 where people build shacks in unfavourable environments, however, the mayor has the audacity to allocate only R2.4bn to Human Settlements while almost double the amount of money has been allocated to Urban Waste.

“How do you even begin to say you are doing more on safety, services and jobs while you are only allocating R761m on Economic Development?

“Are we forgetting that economic development speaks also to the question of infrastructure development that will enable services to come to poor communities where they are needed the most?” said EFF Metro spokesperson Andiswa Madikazi.

Meanwhile, Good's Anton Louw criticised R200m budgeted for the Cape Town International Convention Centre. (CTICC), saying it “makes no sense when residents suffer under oppressive tariff increases”.

“Ploughing money into the financial black hole that is the CTICC is manifestly irrational when that money could be better spent offsetting the burdensome water and electricity tariffs that have a stranglehold on already struggling Capetonians.

“The Hill-Lewis administration, in its budget, has proposed sinking R200m of ratepayer rand into the CTICC for little or no return in the public's interest,” Louw said.