The Freedom Front Plus (VF Plus) cannot support the Tshwane Metro’s draft budget for the 2025/26 financial year, and proposes that the focus should shift to getting value for money with procurement processes and curbing fruitless expenditure.
Residents are already struggling to keep head above water with the Metro’s current tariffs amid the declining economic situation.
The proposed tariff hikes far exceed the inflation rate of 3,2%, and are as follows:
• Refuse removal increases by 5%
• Electricity by 12%
• Water by 13%
• Sanitation by 6%
• City cleaning levy for open stands amounts to R194,37
A cause for concern that should be noted is that the components with the biggest impact on every municipal bill are power and water, so, the focus should rather be on cutting back on expenses instead of simply increasing tariffs.
The tariff for calculating property taxes will decrease by 4% for all categories of properties, but what needs to be emphasised is that this does not mean that property taxes will necessarily decrease.
The proposed adjustment to the valuation roll will result in a sharp increase in property taxes and lowering this tariff is just a gimmick employed by the ANC/EFF/ActionSA coalition government to hide this fact.
For this reason, the draft budget can project an increase of R1 billion in property tax revenue. The fact that the process of revising the valuation roll has not yet been finalised, though, means that the projected increase in revenue will most probably not realise.
The Freedom Front Plus is also strongly opposed to imposing a new “city cleaning levy”. The Freedom Front Plus is convinced that the department could make better use of its current budget by, among other things, using technology, implementing incentive measures encouraging the public to report illegal dumping, and opening more landfill sites.
The budget is, furthermore, unrealistic seeing as the Metro expects that its surplus will increase with as much as 476%.
The reasons provided for the spike is the 18% projected increase in revenue through leasing municipal assets. The Metro was unable to meet its targets in the past and a significant increase, therefore, appears to be highly unlikely.
Moreover, the Freedom Front Plus proposes that departments’ expenditure should be thoroughly examined, and that political offices should be reduced in size. Some of the Freedom Front Plus’s other proposals are:
• Revising the micro-structure and, thus, reducing the money spent on officials’ salaries.
• Introducing the practice of reserving revenue per ward or region, thus freeing up funds for capital projects, such as upgrading and maintaining infrastructure in those areas, as well as the delivery of basic services.
• Selling properties belonging to the Metro, including houses, superfluous commercial buildings and land, to generate funds for essential capital projects.
• Eradicating illegal power and water connections costing taxpayers millions.
• Drafting policy for buying power back from consumers.
The Freedom Front Plus is imploring residents to take part in the public participation processes on the draft budget and to make their voices heard.
The Freedom Front Plus will announce the relevant dates as soon as they are available.
