New tax for households and businesses in one of South Africa’s biggest cities

The City of Tshwane plans to boost revenue by introducing a new R185 per month levy for properties using private waste collectors.

The Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality proposed the “City Cleansing Levy” in its recently tabled draft budget for the 2025/2026 financial year.

It will target properties worth over R250,000 that do not have a waste account with the municipality and pay for private waste collectors.

Additionally, a proposed monthly levy will be imposed on all vacant properties larger than 150,000 m².

According to the metro, there are approximately 194,400 residential properties and just over 62,000 business premises that do not currently use the city’s refuse collection service. 

This will amount to R185 per month for households and R194,37 for open stands, which is expected to generate approximately R540 million in additional revenue.

Tshwane mayor Dr Nasiphi Moya said the tariff would kick in on 1 July if passed as is.

Moya explained that the tax is for those who “use private refuse collection aimed at improving urban cleanliness and waste management.”

“Basically, while they are using the private companies for their waste collection, they are still using our landfill sites to dump. Therefore, that is what the charge is for.”

Looking at the budget, there is a projected total operating revenue of R53.6 billion and an anticipated surplus of R1.3 billion. There is additionally an allocation of R2.4 billion for infrastructure projects.

“Alongside our efforts to table a fully funded budget, we have prioritised keeping tariffs as fair and affordable as possible, ensuring that residents are not burdened with unreasonable increases,” added the mayor.

Other proposed increases for the metro include:

• Electricity: +12%;
• Water: +13%;
• Sanitation: +6%;
• Refuse Removal: +4.6%.

Backlash for the City Cleansing Levy

The proposed City Cleansing Levy has been met with some fierce criticism.

Civil society group Afriforum called this “an unfair double taxation of taxpayers in the Metro.”

“AfriForum maintains that the new levy is simply aimed at milking dry the Metro’s already overtaxed owner, who will also soon have to fork out extra for the heavily adjusted property rate, for further revenue.”

AfriForum’s Lambert de Klerk argues it unfairly targets owners who switched to private refuse removal “due to poor municipal service.”

“Although the Metro has the authority to levy taxes and tariffs to secure revenue, there are specific measures that protect owners,” said Deidré Steffens, Advisor for Local Government Affairs at AfriForum.

Steffens argues the proposed levy violates Section 74(2) of the Municipal Systems Act by imposing a fixed fee instead of a usage-based tariff.

“It is clear that the municipality is attempting to tax residents in order to fund its budget. With property valuations having skyrocketed, this additional levy will place an even greater financial strain on residents,” said Steffens.

AfriForum urges the Metro to focus on debt collection and water waste reduction instead.

The budget estimates the city’s revenue collection rate to be just under 93%, however, opposition parties said this was unattainable since the municipality’s rate is usually below 90%.

Meanwhile, the Democratic Alliance (DA) has also criticised the plan.

“While the mayor says that the levy would only apply to properties that do not pay a waste collection charge, that distinction is not clear from the wording of the proposed budget,” said caucus leader Cilliers Brink.

Last year, the idea of a city cleansing levy was rejected by the previous administration.

“We understood that we could not tax the city out of financial distress. Whatever short-term gains could be made by billing people more would be negated within months as levels of non-payment rose,” said Brink.

Pieter Meijer of the Freedom Front Plus said that the party is “strongly opposed” to the proposed levy.

“The Freedom Front Plus is convinced that the department could make better use of its current budget by, among other things, using technology, implementing incentive measures encouraging the public to report illegal dumping, and opening more landfill sites,” said Meijer.