Joburg residents paying a ‘double tax’

Service delivery and maintenance problems in South Africa’s richest city, Johannesburg, have resulted in residents being subject to a system of “double taxation” since, on top of their existing taxes, they have to pay to fix the city’s problems.

This is feedback from JoburgCAN regional manager Julia Fish, who spoke on Newzroom Afrika.

“We’re under a level of double taxation. We’re having to step in and fill our own potholes and take over traffic lights,” Fish said. “And we’re not seeing a return.”

“So not only are organised businesses and residents pumping money into the rate system and not seeing a return, they’re then having to get their own private medical aid, having to get their own private security, and all of those are now also under threat.”

In addition, bylaws are also being introduced to regulate areas where residents have had to step up where the city has failed.

President Cyril Ramaphosa recently made a surprise visit to Johannesburg, and he was reportedly unhappy with the state of the city.

Starting on Thursday, 6 March, Ramaphosa also led members of his executive on a two-day visit to Gauteng.

Fish said it is unsurprising that Ramaphosa, who is himself a resident of Joburg, is unhappy with the state of the city, as many of the locals are.

Numerous calls from businesses, civil society, and residents have urged the president to intervene in the city’s decline.

Fish explained that JoburgCAN is calling on the president to intervene in specific ways.

“One of them is particularly on the budget issue. The city is in a very precarious financial position,” she said.

The city recently failed to pass its interim budget, which she said is basically an admission that they do not have enough money to get through the year.

As a result, they have had to change things around, reallocating funding for sanitation, for example, and using that to fix water leaks, Fish explained.

The city has a major non-revenue water (NRW) problem, which means that water is produced and supplied but does not generate revenue because of losses throughout the distribution system.

“With that, it’s an admittance that the city has absolutely no financial holding on what it’s doing,” Fish said.

“They need to reanalyse the budget and make sure that they do it from a zero-rated perspective that specifically focuses on what the residents of the City of Johannesburg need, and that is core service delivery.”

“That is the mandate of the municipality, to keep the lights on, to keep cars driving along very clean, well-maintained roads, and to make sure that we have water coming out of our taps.”

Fish said that is where they want the presidency to intervene. They want the president to look into tender projects and facilitate a way for the private sector to step in and work with the city to fill those funding gaps.

Despite large water maintenance projects that happened in Joburg earlier this year, many residents are still struggling with their water supply.

“We’re struggling because there has been a systemic shifting of money away from maintenance and infrastructure towards non-core functions of the city,” Fish said.

“We’ve obviously seen that in terms of the VIP budgets as well as things that really should be covered by both provincial and national government, be it cultural events, such as changing road names, or dealing with parks and stadiums and swimming pools.”

These expenses should really be covered by grants received from the National Treasury, she said.

“Instead of the R12 billion that Joburg water brings in in terms of revenue, they’re only getting R1.2 billion redirected back to them.”

“They need to cover about 8% of their entire asset value in maintenance, and we’ve been sitting at about 3% for the last few years.”

Although Fish said that water maintenance projects were welcome, they are not enough.

“The backlog that is now in place for infrastructure development is sitting at over R90 billion and we’re not going to get there by continuing to spend the budget in the ways that we are,” she said.