The thing that makes me more and more angry, is when I look at all the various charges that is added to my monthly City of JHB bill. These amounts are all before VAT and rounded:
Electricity: Services charge - R 280, Network charge - R904
Water: Demand levy - R65, Sewer charge - R 698.
On an overall basis my actual electricity and water usage is less than half of my actual bill. Why do we have to pay all these charges in addition to actual usage?
Painful when considering how much the cost of living has increased in the city.
JB
3 Likes
I’m not in the CoJ. My sympathies. My hometown, in the infamous Emfuleni Local Municipality, is widely regarded as the pothole capital of the country. Also excluding VAT:
Refuse: R235.98 (plus R120 for a private service that actually collects it).
Electricity: R418.18 basic charge (despite being largely on solar).
Sewerage: R131.85 basic, with extras conveniently tied to water use.
I keep a 500-litre water backup - though in the rainy season, the potholes are well supplied.
The real masterpiece is property rates, based on municipal valuations that exceed what houses actually sell for.
To increase revenue various charges tend to creep in over time or undergoes various ‘adjustments’ hoping that they would go unnoticed. e.g. COJ used to charge per refuge bin. Suddenly they started charging a tiered rate based on stand side. The same happened with the addition of a sewage charge that was also tiered to stand size. Both these fees were higher and ensured income even for empty or vacant stands! All these fees plus VAT, of course. Not to mention the over-valuation of properties to ensure higher rates, gambling that only a handful would actually formally object to the valuation rolls…
PS. The banks are guilty of the same (compare your charges from 20 years ago, to those of today)
To provide some contrast. City of Cape Town bill for a Somerset West resident. Average property with erf size 1110 sqm. Amounts vat excl
Property rates: 1428 (31 days, net - after rebate credit)
Electricity service and wires charge : 340 (consumption charge: 15 lol tx to pv)
Water fixed basic charge: 122 (consumption 1520, exceptionnaly high)
Refuse: 179
Sewerage fixed charge: 65 (consumption linked to water 792)
City-wide cleaning (new): 97
Total fixed charges: 2 231
Total consumption charges: 2 327
Without PV, based on electricity price and historic consumption, add ± 1 200 pm