So the western Cape is planning to bleed its residents dry

[adrianh]

Cape Town: Mayor Dan Plato tabled the City of Cape Town’s R56.6 billion budget - which comes with a number of increases that will have ratepayers forking out more money ​from July 1, 2021.


Rates increases are as follows:

Residents will be getting a 4.5% average increase for rates;
5% increase for water and sanitation; and
3.5% for refuse removal.
The electricity tariff will be increased by 13.48%.

https://www.iol.co.za/capeargus/news...1-ba39ef6a4b1f

[Justloadit]

COJ is doing similar increases.

My Sewerage costs more than double my water consumption, where my typical monthly water consumption is approximately R 165.00

[tec0]

All i want to see from any municipality is transparency when it comes to spending, maintenance and income. If it is in the public view it gets very hard to hide things. Just saying their should be a monthly report and every few months a audit. Then at least you know the money is going to where it is suppose to go.

@Adrian

if you feel like boiling your blood, do what i did. Calculate how many house holds are in the municipal area. Calculate the combined property tax for each area and see how much that is a month. It is incredible amounts of money. But nothing gets maintained, upgraded or even implemented. Now if you really want to a big brain moment calculate tax on businesses, commercial and industrial and then add "ALL" charged for services including licensing. It amounts to insane amounts of money. Now the Big questions is where is that money being spend?

[Blurock]

Be happy that you live in the best run municipality in the country.

Consider these TARIFF INCREASES (Except)

"Considering the current challenges, the drafting of the budget was severely restricted. Tariff increases have been substantially decreased from the MTREF projections. Major efforts have been put in place to ensure realistic and affordable tariff increases.
Electricity
The electricity tariff increase is proposed at 6.9% which is a 50% reduction from the anticipated increase in the MTREF.
Water
An increase of 23% was initially forecast to balance the municipal budget. However, following the review by the Budget Prioritisation Committee, negotiations ****to reduce their tariff increase to 6.9%, a tariff increase of 9.9% is being proposed. Compared to last five years’ increases of 15%, this is a welcome relief to consumers.
Sewerage and Refuse Tariffs
The forecast increases for sewerage and refuse tariffs were both 15%. However, following the reprioritisation and reviewing of all expenditure items, the increase has been reduced to a more affordable 9.9%".

This is in a municipality where the major and senior officials have been arrested for fraud, racketeering and money laundering. The People are subsidizing these crooks with their taxes, but the People keep voting for them!

[adrianh]

I have to be perfectly honest - I have no time whatsoever for the municipality for various reasons. If this is the best run municipality in the country then I am very very sorry for the rest of the country because these people are really not good at all.

The problem with the increases is of course that many people have lost their jobs and are still fighting the fallout from Covid. It all just comes at a very bad time. They added all sorts of levies to the water bill when they ran out of water years back and those levies were conveniently left in place. The municipality is quite happy to turn the water off and leave people to their own devices.

I think that the increases in levies is only going to serve for people to cut back even more, which of course will lead them to increase prices even further next year. That is exactly what happened with water consumption. They made water so expensive that people got used to using less water....so it goes round and round...

[Blurock]

People do not realise that the price of water will escalate exponentially, the same as electricity, due to corruption and incompetence. The Dept of water, municipalities and water authorities are only a little way behind Escom. Evidence how many communities have not had a drop of water for weeks or months. Infrastructure is failing and shit is running down the streets and into our rivers.

The population is growing at an alarming rate, encouraged by the government's policy of child grants and free maternity services. There is more demand on access to water and a deficit is predicted between available water and a growing population. The Dept of Water & Sanitation total 2020/21 budget estimates amounted to R17.3 billion, of which infrastructure accounted for R13.6 billion. The Department has announced a R33 billion funding gap each year for the next 10 years that had to be closed through improved revenue generation and reduced costs. Non revenue water is more than 40% due to leaks and non payment.

Expect to pay up to 30% more on your water bills in the foreseeable future. Managing your water usage and preventing leaks is therefore ever more important.
Anyone in the market for an AUS-iot monitor?

[adrianh]

What is a AUS-iot monitor?

I really need to get a handle on my water and electricity consumption. We do a lot of laundry and the tumble dryer runs all the time.

I think that if I were able to graph my water and electricity consumption in realtime it would scare us into being more efficient.

As an aside - I had plans drawn up to build on to the house - I think that that would be a really bad idea to build on given these increases. My wife has now been in the UK for nearly 3 years on her ancestral visa. The kids and I are going to join her in the next 2 years so the best thing to do is to make the house nice and shiny and sell it before we move. The problem with our country is that it is moving steadily backwards in all ways (Yes @Ians I agree with you 100% - it just took me a long time to admit to myself) In 20 years time the UK might be 20 years ahead (meaning stayed the same) but SA will be 20 years back no matter what we do. SA is simply unable to move forward because the leaders steal from the future to party in the present.

[Blurock]

What is a AUS-iot monitor?

This is a LoRa device attached to your water meter. Almost real time data on usage as well as alarms for leaks or high consumption. Ideal for property administrators to read meters in different complexes remotely and to do billing from a dashboard, including levies and other charges. Also available for electricity and gas.
The device is manufactured locally and exported to Australia.

See my blog for more info.

[adrianh]

This is a LoRa device attached to your water meter. Almost real time data on usage as well as alarms for leaks or high consumption. Ideal for property administrators to read meters in different complexes remotely and to do billing from a dashboard, including levies and other charges. Also available for electricity and gas.
The device is manufactured locally and exported to Australia.

See my blog for more info.

Please tell us more about the device here in the forum - I am sure that many people are interested in saving money.

Where is your blog? I am really interested in this device.

[Blurock]

This is a LoRa device attached to your water meter. Almost real time data on usage as well as alarms for leaks or high consumption. Ideal for property administrators to read meters in different complexes remotely and to do billing from a dashboard, including levies and other charges. Also available for electricity and gas.
The device is manufactured locally and exported to Australia.

See my blog for more info.

Here is the link, or you can click on "What's New" and look for The Efficient management of water within Estates.

https://www.theforumsa.co.za/blogs/e...within-Estates