Cape Town residents are facing growing pressure on household budgets as annual increases in municipal rates and service charges add to the rising cost of living.
Ratepayers say the increases are becoming increasingly difficult to absorb, with some questioning why their bills have not come down following a High Court ruling on the City’s calculation of fixed charges.
Chairperson of the Cape Town Collective Ratepayers’ Association, Bas Zuidberg, says the court case did not reduce the City’s overall expenditure, but changed how fixed charges were distributed among ratepayers.
“The fixed charges, the total amount, didn’t change. It’s just the way that it was being distributed over the ratepayers. So the City expenditure didn’t change.”
Zuidberg says the amount residents pay also depends on the valuation of their property.
Listen to the full interview with Bas Zuidberg below:
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