Businesses as well as households are under pressure from rising costs‚ raising the spectre of fewer jobs being created.

This warning was sounded by Kenneth Creamer‚ economist at University of Witwatersrand’s School of Economic and Business Sciences‚ who said the cost of municipal services was rising faster than wages of the citizens and the country’s inflation.

He said this would put “dire” pressure on households in Gauteng.

“Households will be required to reallocate income that would have been spent on other goods and services to pay for increasingly costly municipal services. Low income households will find that they have little room for such adjustments and will take serious strain. In general‚ household savings will also be negatively affected by the rise in municipal costs‚” Creamer said.

But the rise in municipal services will not affect just the citizens but business trading within the three cities.

“The cost of doing business will also be driven (up)‚ which may have negative consequences for job creation in the province‚” Creamer said.

The cost of living and doing business in the country’s economic hub will substantially rise as of today as the three major cities – Ekurhuleni‚ Tshwane and Johannesburg increase the cost of municipal services.

The average electricity average increase in the three cities will be 15%.

Water will increase on average by 14% in the three cities. Ekurhuleni has a marginally higher increase of water at 14.5% followed by Joburg at 14% and Tshwane at 13.5%.

Property rates will rates in the three metros will also rise by an average of 7.1%. The highest increase is in Tshwane where rates will rise by 8% followed by Ekurhuleni with a 7.5% and the cheapest in this category is Joburg with an increase of just 6%.

But this does not mean that Joburg is the cheapest place to be. The low increase in one service of a city can be cancelled by a higher increase in another. Furthermore‚ each city decides the minimum value of a property that will pay rates and the age and income at which these are charged. All the three cities are desperate for revenue in order to get more room to invest in infrastructure.

The City of Tshwane’s economy thrives on car manufacturers‚ being an administrative capital and housing a number of embassies. Joburg on the other hand has a much more diverse economy with a focus on the retail and services sector. Ekurhuleni’s economy thrives on the back of a bigger manufacturing sector and logistics anchored on the airport.

But as the country’s economy is currently growing at just 2.1%‚ citizens in these three citizens are under pressure due to unemployment and general cost of living being high.

All the three mayors – Joburg’s Park Tau‚ Tshwane‚ Kgosientso Ramokgopa of Tshwane and Ekurhuleni’s Mondli Gungubele have indicated that the cost of providing basic service have substantially increased over the past years.

As the cities source their water and electricity from other state entities‚ that cost is passed to the consumer‚ adding municipal distribution costs.

To make matters worse‚ Gauteng citizens have to fork out more money to pay for e-tolls‚ which have been announced by Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa as here to stay and will be enforced from today.