Note to Editors: Please find an English soundbite here
The Democratic Alliance (DA) in the City of Ekurhuleni has voted against the ANC-EFF-ActionSA budget which seeks to further fleece residents of their hard-earned money through above-inflation tariff increase while giving little expression to improving service delivery.
The budget tabled by Ekurhuleni Finance MMC, Ald. Jongizizwe Dlabhati, seeks to increase water and sanitation, property rates, electricity and waste management far outside the bounds of inflation, while ballooning the wage bill by an additional R1.9 billion.
Coupled to this is the disproportionate property valuation roll that will see some residents being forced to pay upwards of 200% increases on their existing rates bill.
Below are the increases for the 2025/26 financial year:
- Water: 15%
- Sanitation: 10%
- Electricity: 11.32% – 12.74% (category tariff dependant)
- Waste management 6%
With the cost of the basic basket of food currently sitting at R1,503.00, roughly 34.5% of the net minimum wage in South Africa, residents are being placed in the precarious position of having to decide whether to pay for service or eat.
Instead of using the budget to implement initiatives that would stimulate economic growth and foster a city region that attracts investment, scant regard is given to failing service delivery, infrastructure maintenance and investment.
This budget will continue to increase government bloat while doing little to arrest the very real and evident collapse of our towns.
The DA cannot support a budget that takes food out of the mouths of our residents, neglects economic growth and does little to improve collapsed service delivery.
The people of Ekurhuleni deserve better!