COJ reduces the waste management tariffs

Ward 117 Councillor Tim Truluck discovered earlier in the year that COJ was to increase waste management tariffs by 128 per cent from 1 July.

Councillors and resident’s associations reacted with a flood of complaints and comments to the City as well as an online petition of almost 1800 angry residents.

The budget documents that were recently sent to councillors, contained outcomes of the Public Participation Process of the Draft 2016 and 2017 Budget and Property Rates and Tariffs for 2016 and 2017 Financial Year. The waste management tariffs had been substantially reduced.

“This is a brilliant victory for the residents, in five years, we have never seen the City back down so much on any proposed increase,” said Ward 102 Councillor David Potter.

Councillor Truluck said, in a speech he made in May, that every year, the DA has been calling for inflation-linked realistic tariff increases and residents, likewise, have often rejected high increases. “I am glad the City has seen that massively increasing the household waste collection tariffs as well as re-implementing a City Cleaning Levy was not only a slap in the face for their residents after the recent Pikitup strike, but also iniquitous in the huge increases they were proposing,” said Truluck.

Truluck said that he knows that the residents throughout the City were outraged by the proposed waste increases, especially after he ran an online petition that attracted almost 1800 respondents in 10 days. He said that the City readily admitted that submissions were dominated by the residential sector of the economy with a focus on affordability of proposed tariffs and link with service delivery.

Truluck said that the public strongly objected to paying tariffs which are based on property prices when the service has nothing to do with the size, value or any parameter that could remotely be related to the price of the property. He said that this resulted in Pikitup conceding that they have considered all comments received regarding its tariffs and amended its tariff policy following the review of public comments.

The DA notes that while some waste collection tariff increases are still high at around 10.1 per cent for the properties valued at over R5 million, it is way better than the original 128 per cent. Most waste collection increases are now 5.7 to 6.3 per cent, which is much more acceptable. Water has come down by 1.5 to 1 per cent and electricity by 0.7 per cent.

“We think that this is a stunning victory and shows the power when our residents are well informed and then take the time to object,” Truluck concluded.

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