The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Tshwane is calling for a review of the city’s budget to lessen the tax burden on residents.
The opposition party in the metro said the current draft budget treats residents as cash cows.
This call comes ahead of Finance MMC Eugene Modise’s budget speech for the 2025/26 financial year.
The African National Congress (ANC)-led multiparty coalition government in Tshwane has touted the draft budget as the municipality’s first fully funded one since 2021. However, the DA alleges that this has been made possible by the city extorting more money from already over-burdened ratepayers.
The DA’s Jacqui Uys said Tshwane must scrap the introduction of the new city cleansing levy and increase the threshold of exempt rateable properties to R450,000.
“He (Modise) should consider a budget that serves the residents of Tshwane and not become part of the ANC’s quest to look good on paper but fail in its real mandate at delivering services to the people of Tshwane. If he wishes to table a budget that doesn’t push the financial rescue of the city of Tshwane onto its residents, he will heed the DA’s submissions into the budget process.”
The DA said it cannot support the budget in its current form. *Ward 61 committee member for Finance, Abdul Kader Kurtha (KK) is yet to give a statement to the community concerning the increase in utility charges in the budget, especially the cleansing levy of R194 for those residents not using the Council’s refuse services.
Abdul Kader Kurtha (KK), is yet to comment concerning the increase in utility charges in the budget, especially the cleansing levy.