Note to Editors: Please find attached English and Afrikaans soundbites by Ald Cilliers Brink here, and here
On the same day that ActionSA in Parliament voted to impose a VAT increase on already overburdened South Africans, their Tshwane mayor Nasiphi Moya held a press conference on the budget she is proposing for the city.
Moya and ActionSA’s army of social media bots and influencers, which seem to outnumber their voters, have been particularly outspoken about the fact that the budget will be ‘funded’.
What the mayor didn’t say was that this will be achieved on the back of residents paying more for property rates due to a new valuation roll. And as if this is not enough, Moya wants to introduce a city cleansing levy. This is in addition to the waste collection charge.
While the mayor says that the levy would only apply to properties that do not pay a waste collection charge that distinction is not clear from the wording of the proposed budget.
Last year my mayoral committee and I rejected the idea of a city cleansing levy. We understood that we could not tax the city out of financial distress. Whatever short-term gains could be made by billing people more would be negated within months as levels of non-payment rose.
ActionSA’s strategy in Parliament and in Tshwane seem to be the same, to try and fool people. In Parliament, they said that they would stop a VAT increase as well as secure income tax relief and then voted for a VAT increase without income tax relief.
In Tshwane, Moya blames ‘past administrations’ for Tshwane’s failure. This includes the administration in which Moya served as deputy mayor for most of her time as a politician, from January to October 2024.
Several ActionSA councillors were also members of the mayoral committee since 2021. At the same time, she is happy to take credit for the successes of those ‘past administrations.
This includes the solution devised to the Hammanskraal water crisis, settling the VAT and penalties on an ANC-era smart meter contract (a significant portion was written off in April 2024), as well as the money saved by the city in not paying unaffordable salary increases to officials and staff.
Last week my DA colleagues Jacqui Uys and Ofentste Madzebatela unveiled a set of proposals to relieve the pressure on residents that higher property rates will cause. We specifically warned Moya’s ANC-led coalition against introducing new taxes.
As the city’s budget is now open for public participation, we call on Tshwane residents to reject Moya’s clean city tax and to support our proposals for tax relief. Tshwane’s financial rescue is possible without breaking the backs of residents.