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THE City of Johannesburg is to increase tariffs by up to 14.5% with effect from July.

This was announced yesterday by the City's member of the mayoral committee for finance Geoff Makhubo, who said electricity tariffs would increase by a whopping 14%, water, sewage and sanitation by 14.5%, and property and refuse removal rates by 6% and 6.7% respectively.

This means households will pay hundreds of rands more for all five services, an amount the city punted as being the lowest among all other metros.

Makhubo said the hikes were driven by the cost of bulk buying from power utility Eskom and Rand Water.

"In determining these tariffs, we had to ensure that they are affordable yet at the same time contribute to the sustainability of service provision," he said ahead of the delivery of his budget speech.

"All inputs from consultation processes were considered."

He said the hikes were influenced by guidelines from the National Energy Regulator of SA, and the need for the city to invest in its network infrastructure with the aim of reducing R1.2-billion in distribution losses.

Most of these tariffs are aligned to inflation which currently stands at 6%, he added.

The City of Johannesburg has grown its 2012/13 budget allocation from R28.3-billion to R37.6-billion, in a bid to ensure better service delivery to residents.

A chunk of the budget, R12.6-billion, is allocated to City Power for day-today expenditure including an additional R953-million for big projects.

"This dominant focus is to improve the quality of supply and quality of service.

"We will be investing in infrastructure to reduce technical and non-technical losses in electricity as well as new service connections and public lighting."

The city's immediate intention was to stabilise its financial position and rebuild cash reserves to improve its capacity to invest, he said.

There are plans to extend the Rea Vaya BRT system to other areas and R955.8-million has been set aside for the project.

Close to R2-million will go into the Johannesburg Metro Police Department's coffers for crime prevention, and traffic and bylaw enforcement.

The Johannesburg Roads Agency has been given R274-million for the construction of new roads and to fund new projects, while another R548-million will go towards routine maintenance like potholes and other road improvements.

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Fri May 24 10:51:13 SAST 2013 ::

May 24, 2012

DoubleStandards

15% increase in tarrifs!!! -- "Most of these tariffs are aligned to inflation which currently stands at 6%, he added"

Groot verskil tussen 15% en 6% boeta. No damn, its becoming too expensive in Joburg now. The premier needs to pull her act together.
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May 24, 2012

Pointman

These bumbling crapheads are hitting on the paying citizens again. They do not understand that high taxes are killing the city. The solution lies in more efficiency and not in more taxes.
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May 24, 2012

shrink7

ja neh!
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May 24, 2012

Vhamsanda

JHB is slowly becoming home for the rich only.
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May 24, 2012

HoiMash69

Promises promises, reasons to increase rates nje, Theres no such thing as better service
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May 24, 2012

chickylady

city of joburg is really trying to get rid of ppl in the city, aowa hape these is too much, and on top of these there is e-tolling that might rock our wallets anytime.... jooo! re tlo chona guys, being broke for real!!!
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May 24, 2012

RobinH

Onward and ever upward. This is the start. I believe that the City of Cape Town is also increasing its rates. How are we normal lower middle-class people going to survive the perpetual spiral of rates, taxes, tolls etc generated by the inability of our leaders, on virtually all fronts, to curb their gross mismanagement of funds.
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May 24, 2012

BaleliM

First give service then increase.
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May 24, 2012

mambaaai

all to pay for the state employees to be able to drive through the toll gates; the money has to come from somewhere.... why not the poor buggers that voted them in
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May 24, 2012

mambaaai

thses measures would not be needed if the money they already collect was used efficiently... e-toll a perfect examply of how they go about things. We wont mention pilfering, and the ammount of money that each pilfering is , known and unknown pilferings
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