Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis has announced that the City is considering new measures to cushion the blow of rising municipal bills in its R39.7 billion 2025/26 Draft Budget, particularly for middle-income homeowners and pensioners.
Speaking on Cape Talk, Hill-Lewis emphasised that while the budget already prioritises relief for properties under R2.5 million, the City is actively modelling expanded rebates for homeowners with properties valued up to R7 million.
This move comes in response to public criticism over sharp increases in monthly bills, particularly among residents in the R4 million to R7 million property range.
“The criticism that I’ve heard, and which I really wholeheartedly accept, is that not everyone in the R4m–R7m property band is wealthy, or cash-flush,” Hill-Lewis said.
“You may have bought your home a long time ago, you’ve paid it off, now you have a very valuable home, but you don’t have the income to match it.”
Key relief measures under consideration
- Extending the current R450,000 rates-free benefit beyond the R5 million property value cap.
- Increasing the income threshold for pensioner rebates (currently set at R22,000/month).
- Reducing new City-Wide Cleaning charges for properties between R2.5 million and R7.5 million.
Electricity relief and structural reforms
In a notable shift, the City has slashed Eskom’s 11.32 per cent electricity price hike to just 2 per cent for most households.
This is enabled by removing the 10 per cent electricity surcharge that previously funded other City services, now replaced by a ring-fenced cleaning tariff.
While this tariff reform led to higher bills for some mid-range properties, Hill-Lewis argued that the electricity savings should significantly offset those increases.
“Total bill increases can drop dramatically when taking electricity usage into account due to the major price relief in Cape Town,” he said.
Water and sanitation reforms
New water and sanitation tariffs will bring lower or minimal increases for 140,000 lower-income homes.
Meanwhile, 250,000 properties under R500,000 continue to receive free basic services, the highest allocation among SA metros.
Fixed charges will now be linked to property value, rather than connection size, to ease pressure on lower-income households.
Budget pushback and public concern
Despite these relief efforts, the Draft Budget has faced criticism, especially from middle-income residents who feel squeezed by tariff reforms.
The City’s effort to fund massive infrastructure investments, 63 per cent more than Johannesburg over the next three years, has driven concerns about affordability in higher property brackets.
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