THERE has been wide-ranging condemnation of eThekwini Municipality’s proposed tariff hikes for electricity, water and refuse collection during a pandemic.
Political parties and civil organisations said the city was not taking into account the economic impact on families due to the national lockdown to fight the spread of the coronavirus.
The city recently released for public comment the city’s 2020/21 draft budget, in which it proposes increases for electricity (6.9%), water (9.9%) and sewage and refuse (9.9%).
The city said the increases were significantly less than the anticipated amounts after taking into consideration the coronavirus pandemic.
Last year, the city increased electricity and water by 15% and 14.4% respectively while refuse has remained unchanged.
Mduduzi Nkosi, Inkatha Freedom Party member of the Durban Executive Council, voted against the increase at a meeting of the council’s Executive Committee last week.
“We are not sure when people will return to work, or if they will have work to return to. Most people work in companies with ‘no work, no pay’ policies. Taking that into context I believe we had to suspend the increases for this year,” he said.
READ RELATED: Cash-strapped eThekwini calls for public comment on city’s draft budget
Mlebuka Hlengwa, EFF eThekwini Chairperson, said he appreciated the hikes were less when compared to last year but said it counted for nothing if the city did not fix its shoddy billing system.
“We have a billing challenge of people being charged exorbitant amounts for water and electricity they have not used. So for those people an increase or decrease does not make any difference, they are still paying more than they are using,” he said.
Heather Ross, Chairperson of Umbilo Community of Police Forum, said the news of the imminent increases were very distressing in times of great distress.
“The timing of it is bad. People are already struggling to hold onto their properties and jobs, these are scary times for people. We have no money coming in since we are sitting at home and now we have to contend with this also,” she said.
The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse, (OUTA) released a statement calling for no increases to electricity this year.
“Covid-19 has caused pain and suffering to South Africa and it would be an unfair blow to South Africans to have to absorb further electricity price increases while dealing with the effects of this pandemic. We all had to take some pain for team South Africa during the pandemic, so Eskom should absorb these losses,” it said.
Due to the Coronavirus pandemic, the city will not be hosting any meetings at town halls for public participation on the draft budget.
Residents are encouraged lodge their comments by 8 May 2020 on the proposed budget via email: Constance.Mwelase@durban.gov.za or info@durban.gov.za
The draft MTREF 2020/2021 can be viewed via: https://www.durban.gov.za/Resource_Centre/reports/Budget/Pages/default.aspx
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