Rates hikes leave no space to breathe

Get ready to pay even more on your municipal rates bill, whether you live in Joburg, Tshwane or Ekurhuleni.

From 1 July, you will have to dig even deeper into your pockets as above-inflation hikes hit home.

Julia Fish, manager of JoburgCAN, the community action network of the Organisation for Undoing Tax Abuse, said: “Rising interest rates, a declining economic sector, high unemployment and double taxation in the form of having to pay for additional private services, such as security and health services, are severely affecting the city’s residents and they cannot absorb these increases easily.”

She added: “Joburg risks losing these ratepayers due to ever-increasing cost, yet there is a significant increase in service breakdowns and infrastructure deterioration.”

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“The public are also becoming more and more angered by the lack of service delivery for which they are paying.”

“If the city does not prioritise giving ratepayers a good return on the rates they pay through sufficient service delivery, it will lose big businesses and a large number of ratepayers to better-performing municipalities.”

With high rates of unemployment, rising food costs and stagnant salaries, we can’t just absorb these increases. Something has to give…

It’s time to tighten our belts but, sadly for most, the belts have run out of holes.

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