City plans to soften tariff jump

Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis last last week announced that the City is looking to extend rates rebates to more property owners and pensioners to cushion annual municipal bill increases for 2025-'26.

- DESIREE RORKE

Speaking on Cape Talk on Tuesday morning, he said while the 2025-'26 Budget was designed to bring relief to households under R2,5 million, the City was looking at additional support to owners of properties valued at up to R7 million to mitigate potential monthly bill increases arising from tariff reforms and vital multi-billion rand infrastructure investments.

Support measures currently being modelled by the City include expanding property-rates relief by extending the first R450 000 rates-free benefit to more homes beyond the current R5 million cut-off, raising pensioner rebate-qualifying criteria higher than the current R22 000 monthly income and reducing City-wide Cleaning charges for properties from R2,5 million to R7,5 million.

"The criticism I've heard, and which I really wholeheartedly accept, is that not everyone in the R4 million to R7 million property band is wealthy, or cash-flush," Hill-Lewis said.

"You may have bought your home a long time ago, you've paid it off and now you have a very valuable home, but you don't have the income to match it. I really take that point, and so we are modelling a number of measures to increase rebates to those homes, and also to reduce the impact of the City-wide Cleaning charge."

The City has further published analyses of the various budgets for other major cities in which it illustrates Cape Town has the most inclusive indigentand pensioner-support package while still maintaining a lower monthly bill for ratepayers by comparison, across a range of household scenarios.

"In other metros residents are paying more and more for broken services and collapsing infrastructure," Hill-Lewis pointed out.