Relief for property owners in Joburg
The City of Johannesburg (CoJ) has revised its property rates downwards to 3.8%, the lowest property rates tariff increase for the 2024/25 financial year and 1% below inflation.
On Tuesday (15 May), the city’s Finance MMC, Dada Morero, unveiled its R83.1 billion budget, prioritising investments in infrastructure renewal and service delivery to mitigate the impact of load shedding and revitalise the city.
This included its revised revenue streams for the current financial year, which includes property rates and electricity, water, refuse and sanitation tariff increases.
Property rates revenue is the third largest revenue stream for the City and funds basic services such as health, community development, roads, cemeteries, parks and libraries.
“In the 2024/25 financial year, our initial proposal for the property rates increase was 4.8% based on the CPI assumption used in the budget.
“Despite that initial proposal of 4.8% being the lowest amongst all metros, in the final budget, we are proposing a further 1% reduction to a tariff increase of 3.8%,” said Morero.
Other tariff increases include:
- Electricity tariff increase is 12.7%,
- Water and sanitation tariff increases by 7.7%, and
- Refuse by 5.9%.
Commenting on its proposed property increase of 3.8% and other services like electricity and water, Morero said the increases would allow for the continuation of providing rates-funded services and investment in infrastructure to mitigate the impact of load shedding.
He added that the electricity tariff is expected to generate revenue of R22 billion, which City Power will utilise to meet daily service delivery needs.
These needs include buying power from Eskom and Kelvin, fixing and installing streetlights, responding to service failures, doing preventative maintenance, and protecting infrastructure from theft and vandalism.
Morero noted much of the same for water.
He said Johannesburg Water’s allocation for an operational budget of R18.3 billion and an additional R4.5 billion multi-year capital budget will focus on the upgrading and renewal of networks, expansion of Wastewater Treatment Works, reservoir storage capacity and water demand management initiatives.
“In the next five years, 77.8 km of water networks and 73.6 km of sewer networks is planned to be replaced,” he said.
“As we try to shield our communities from financial pressures and shocks, we must be mindful that we do not operate in isolation.
“We have a collective duty to build investor confidence and to build a stable and resilient City government in service of and for the people,” he added.
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