Ald Cilliers Brink DA Tshwane Caucus Leader and DA Tshwane mayoral candidate photo by Dimakatso Modipa
By Ald Cilliers Brink
DA Tshwane Caucus Leader
In what is a victory for already overburdened municipal consumers, the Tshwane Metro has admitted to double billing residents who already use the City’s weekly waste collection service by means of the so-called City Cleansing Levy.
On the City’s version, the levy is not intended for households who already pay the City upward of R400 a month for weekly waste collection.
Yet thousands of these accounts have been charged an additional R223 for ‘city cleansing’.
The City has committed to reversing this ‘system error’, which in reality is the mess caused by an ANC/EFF/ActionSA-coalition determined to shake down residents without actually improving services.
The DA pointed to the double billing issue this week, and committed to helping residents to redress the problem.
The City’s response confirms that Tshwane has a billing crisis, and that Mayor Nasiphi Moya has lost control of her finance MMC, Eugene Modise.
The cleansing levy was pushed through by the ANC/EFF/ActionSA-coalition in their first budget since the ANC’s teturn to power.
No new money was allocated for cleaning the City, but residents were expected to pay more all the same.
At the time the DA said that the only purpose of the levy was to plug the deficit which the ANC-led coalition seems unwilling to clear through good financial management.
A written answer by Mayor Nasiphi Moya to my DA colleague Cllr Marika Kruger-Muller provided this week, has since confirmed that no expenditure has been allocated to the levy.
In other words, the charge does not come with corresponding service delivery to residents it is, from the municipality’s perspective, money for nothing.
Since Moya’s election as Mayor in October last year, the City has consistently failed to achieve its budget funding targets.
Despite this, the City has falsely claimed to have achieved a funded budget.
The levy, which according to the City’s admission, should only be charged on properties that do not use the City’s waste removal services, is being challenged in court by Afriforum.
The latest admission by the City provides additional reasons for the levy to be set aside in its entirety.
In the meantime, DA councillors will check that every instance of double-billing is reversed, as per the City’s commitment.