Budget 2.0: Tariff Tweaks Don’t Fix a Fundamentally Flawed Budget

The City of Cape Town’s amended Draft Budget, even in its revised form, remains unaffordable and deeply flawed.

Thanks to pressure from residents and civic groups, the City has been forced to adjust parts of its original budget. These concessions, however limited, would not have been secured without the persistent efforts of Capetonians who stood up, spoke out, and demanded better.

With the final day for public comment set for 13 June, GOOD encourages residents to once again make their voices heard.

In our submission, GOOD raised serious constitutional and legal concerns around:

• The City’s use of property values to determine utility charges, a method that has no direct link to consumption and violates the Municipal Systems Act;
• Fixed charges that punish those who attempt to conserve or generate their own power;
• The introduction of a ‘cleaning levy’ which duplicates services already covered by property rates and will now attract 15% VAT;
• Continued unlawful electricity surcharges, already under legal review.

We cannot allow the City to use budget amendments as a smokescreen to push through unjustified hikes and hidden charges. The burden of poor planning and ballooning infrastructure costs is being passed onto residents, especially working-class and middle-income households, who are now expected to subsidise systemic inefficiencies.

We reiterate our call for tariff increases to be limited to inflation-linked levels. The City needs to shift away from regressive, property-based billing and increase support for lower-income households by raising the rates exemption threshold to R750,000.

Capetonians deserve better and they’ve already shown they are ready to fight for it.