After a special council sitting on 4 June, City of Johannesburg councillors have decided to amend the tariffs and budget for the 2018/19 financial year starting on 1 July.
After initially rejecting the tariff increase, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) recommended changes to be made before accepting the increases.
Joburg’s EFF leader, Musa Novela, said the party wants the water and sanitation tariff to increase by 7,17 per cent instead of the original increase of 7,37 per cent.
Novela also suggested that the electricity increase is lowered to 13,2 per cent instead of the original increase of 14,4 per cent.
During the debate of the budget speech on 29 May, the African National Congress rejected the budget on the basis that it did not have proper consideration of public consultation and that the tariffs were increased too much. The EFF approved the budget, but not the tariffs, which were set out in another report.
It was this that caused a technical blunder and the call was made for this special sitting.
The amended tariffs will now have to appear in a new report that will be tabled in council on 8 June and the City will need to finalise the budget and tariffs before the end of the month.
Also read:
Tariff debacle halts Joburg’s budget progress
15 things you need to know about Joburg’s budget
