It seems that the City of Cape Town is hell-bent on not providing any relief, as far as the electricity levy is concerned, to its ratepayers who are buckling under the numerous problems created by load shedding, the aftermath of Covid-19 and the ripple effect of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Ratepayers also experienced an interest rate increase of 2.75% over the past year while public servants received an annual average salary increase of only 3% – despite numerous foodstuffs having doubled in price over the same period.
The City is charging a ratepayer whose household is consuming more than 600kWh of electricity per month a home user charge of R185 exclusive of VAT, with 65% of it paying Eskom for electricity, 10% going towards rates for shared services and 25% to maintain the City’s electricity grid.
However, for the past 10 months, ratepayers have experienced approximately 2096 hours of load shedding, which is equivalent to 87 continuous days of no electricity or, stated differently, no electricity for almost three months out of the nine and-a-half months of 2022!
The City’s sophisticated billing system can accurately calculate the cost of electricity, water and sewerage based on the number of days over which it was consumed or measured.
Hence, since the City did not provide electricity on 87 out of 285 days, or 31% of the period, one would expect the City not to have billed its ratepayers for these days when no electricity was supplied.
If the home user charge is approximately R6.08 per day, then the overcharge by the city amounts to R529.15, or with VAT included R608.52.
The City’s claim that it has already budgeted the collection of the “electricity levy” for this financial year is hogwash, while the consumer is overburdened with absorbing the double price increases of the various foodstuffs because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, despite receiving a measly salary increase.
In conclusion, if consumers, including ratepayers, must tighten their belts in order to balance their household budgets, then so must the City. After all, this is the least that the City can do to assist ratepayers during these extremely difficult financial times. Or is the City out of touch with reality and acting mercilessly towards its ratepayers?
You be the judge.
* Adiel Ismail, Mountview
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.
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