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Cape Town - Ratepayers in Pretoria and East London are among those paying more for municipal services than their counterparts in other metros, City Press reports.
The economic downturn, climate change and sociopolitical instability have put pressure on cities where government subsidies are not keeping pace.
The SA Cities Network revealed this to parliament last week.
For a basic service package (water, electricity, rates, sewerage, refuse removal and roads), the Tshwane and Buffalo City metros charge nearly one-fifth of a household’s monthly income.
Although Tshwane residents have the highest average household income (R19 173) of the nine cities surveyed, Buffalo City’s is the lowest (R10 300), and households there have to battle harder to survive.
Sithole Mbanga, chief executive of the SA Cities Network, said the financial report indicated that services in cities were becoming increasingly unaffordable.
More people are moving to the cities, increasing the demand for service delivery. Meanwhile, household debt is rising.
Mbanga said if the situation continued like this, cities would degenerate into “centres of poverty”, because municipalities receive too little money from the government.
He said municipalities were therefore obliged to find alternative sources of revenue but would not survive without more help from national treasury.
He said the services offered by local government were becoming unaffordable.
Ian Neilson, deputy mayor of Cape Town and an SA Cities Network board member, said half of the country’s 52 million people live and work in cities.
He said Cape Town’s population alone increased by 30% over the past 10 years.
He said the national government should transfer its focus from rural development to the needs of urbanisation.
Subesh Pillay, a member of the mayor’s committee for economic development in Tshwane, said the problem is that even if municipalities do everything right, they still have a financing gap.
The economic downturn, climate change and sociopolitical instability have put pressure on cities where government subsidies are not keeping pace.
The SA Cities Network revealed this to parliament last week.
For a basic service package (water, electricity, rates, sewerage, refuse removal and roads), the Tshwane and Buffalo City metros charge nearly one-fifth of a household’s monthly income.
Although Tshwane residents have the highest average household income (R19 173) of the nine cities surveyed, Buffalo City’s is the lowest (R10 300), and households there have to battle harder to survive.
Sithole Mbanga, chief executive of the SA Cities Network, said the financial report indicated that services in cities were becoming increasingly unaffordable.
More people are moving to the cities, increasing the demand for service delivery. Meanwhile, household debt is rising.
Mbanga said if the situation continued like this, cities would degenerate into “centres of poverty”, because municipalities receive too little money from the government.
He said municipalities were therefore obliged to find alternative sources of revenue but would not survive without more help from national treasury.
He said the services offered by local government were becoming unaffordable.
Ian Neilson, deputy mayor of Cape Town and an SA Cities Network board member, said half of the country’s 52 million people live and work in cities.
He said Cape Town’s population alone increased by 30% over the past 10 years.
He said the national government should transfer its focus from rural development to the needs of urbanisation.
Subesh Pillay, a member of the mayor’s committee for economic development in Tshwane, said the problem is that even if municipalities do everything right, they still have a financing gap.
