| Comment on the amendments to the draft 2026/27 March Tabled Budget | Comment on the amendments to the draft 2026/27 March Tabled Budget | | <img alt="" src="https://resource.capetown.gov.za/cityassets/PublishingImages/CityConnectHeader.png" style="BORDER:0px solid;" /> | <div class="ExternalClassFF74F394734E4B24A015668231D9AC38"><p>We have made amendments to our 2026/27 March Tabled Budget following the Western Cape High Court judgment of 30 April 2026. You are invited to comment on the new amendments from 27 May until 16:30 on 10 June 2026.</p><p>For a summary of the amendments, view the advert (<a href="https://resource.capetown.gov.za/documentcentre/Documents/Forms%2c%20notices%2c%20tariffs%20and%20lists/HYS-2026-27-BUDGET-ADVERT-ENG.pdf" target="_blank">English</a> |
<a href="https://resource.capetown.gov.za/documentcentre/Documents/Forms%2c%20notices%2c%20tariffs%20and%20lists/HYS-2026-27-BUDGET-ADVERT-AFR.pdf" target="_blank">Afrikaans</a> |
<a href="https://resource.capetown.gov.za/documentcentre/Documents/Forms%2c%20notices%2c%20tariffs%20and%20lists/HYS-2026-27-BUDGET-ADVERT-XHO.pdf" target="_blank">isiXhosa</a>).
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<h2 class="sectHeading">Post 2026/27 March tabling amendments</h2></span>
<p> An application of the recent ruling by the Western Cape High Court in relation to the City’s 2025/26 Approved Budget has caused the City to make amendments to the 2026/27 March Tabled Budget, subject to a supplementary public participation process.</p><h4>The amendments are as follows:</h4><div class="content-accordion"><div class="content-trigger contentTrigger"><h4>City-wide Cleaning<i class="icon button-down-arrow"></i></h4><div class="content-toggle contentToggle" style="display:none;"><p>In the 2026/27 March Tabled Budget, City-wide area cleansing services were funded by a City-wide Cleaning tariff (applicable to residential properties and vacant land), as well as a contribution from the Rates account, supported by a contribution from electricity commercial sales. Following a review of this Order to give effect to the court judgment, the following amendments are proposed:</p><ul><li>City-wide Cleaning for residential properties and vacant land will no longer be recovered through a tariff but instead funded through Property Rates.</li><li>The reliance on electricity contributions to Property Rates for City-wide Cleaning services provided to commercial customers will be phased out.</li><li> The funding requirement for City-wide Cleaning (R869 million), including a provision for debt impairment, has been redistributed across all property rating categories; </li><li> The 2026/27 Electricity contribution to Property Rates (for commercial customers only) will be phased out. This results in an additional R200 million increase in Property Rates for commercial type property rating categories, with a corresponding reduction in the per-unit price increase for electricity purchases for commercial customers. A provision for debt impairment has been included in Property Rates; and </li><li> As a result, the overall average energy tariff increase for commercial customers has been reduced to 5.46% (from 6.82% in the 2026/27 March Tabled Budget), while the average residential energy tariff increase remains unchanged at 6.64%. Both of these increases are below the NERSA-approved increase of 9.01%, and reflect a decrease in the c/kWh recovery rate of 4.04c/kWh. </li></ul><p>In addition, to mitigate the impact of the implementation of the above, and provide relief where most needed, the Residential Property Rates reduction has been increased to R620,000 (including the statutory reduction), up from R500,000 in the 2026/27 March Tabled Budget. </p><p>Further, to accommodate the phasing out of the electricity contribution for commercial properties (above), the Property Rates Rate-in-the-Rand and the Property Rates Ratio have been amended. </p></div></div></div><div class="content-accordion"><div class="content-trigger contentTrigger"><h4>Water and Sanitation<i class="icon button-down-arrow"></i></h4><div class="content-toggle contentToggle" style="display:none;"><p>Fixed Water and Sanitation charges will revert to being based on water meter size, being the methodology applied by the City prior to the introduction of property value bands methodology.</p><p>Although the overall revenue envelope remains unchanged, the balance between fixed (basic) revenue and consumption-based revenue has shifted, with less revenue now raised by fixed tariffs (declining to approx. 17% of water and sanitation revenue from service charges), and more from consumption charges (approx. 83%).
<br><br>The reduction in the overall value of fixed basic charges is largely driven by the City’s effort to mitigate the impact on lower- and middle-income properties, achieved by consolidating the fixed tariff for all meter sizes up to 22 mm, and by increasing the consumption charge for high-consumption consumers.</p><p>To compensate for this change, consumption-based charges for both Water and Sanitation have increased for high-usage domestic customers compared to the 2026/27 March Tabled Budget, as reflected in the tables below (based on water usage levels).</p></div></div></div><h4>Minimising the impact of the court judgment </h4><p>As set out above - to mitigate the impact of higher fixed tariffs for lower value properties (a consequence of the judgement), and provide relief where most needed, the Residential Property Rates reduction has been increased to R620,000 (including the statutory reduction), up from R500,000 in the 2026/27 March Tabled Budget. This has the effect of lowering property rates for lower and mid value properties, to offset the higher fixed water and sanitation tariffs. </p><p>The impact of the ruling does not affect the expenditure aspects of the tabled budget, and no new comment is invited in that regard. </p><h4>Access the documents</h4><ul><li>Advert (<a href="https://resource.capetown.gov.za/documentcentre/Documents/Forms%2c%20notices%2c%20tariffs%20and%20lists/HYS-2026-27-BUDGET-ADVERT-ENG.pdf" target="_blank">English</a> |
<a href="https://resource.capetown.gov.za/documentcentre/Documents/Forms%2c%20notices%2c%20tariffs%20and%20lists/HYS-2026-27-BUDGET-ADVERT-AFR.pdf" target="_blank">Afrikaans</a> |
<a href="https://resource.capetown.gov.za/documentcentre/Documents/Forms%2c%20notices%2c%20tariffs%20and%20lists/HYS-2026-27-BUDGET-ADVERT-XHO.pdf" target="_blank">isiXhosa</a>)</li><li>
<a href="https://www.capetown.gov.za/Family%20and%20home/Meet-the-City/the-city-budget/the-citys-budget-2026-2027" target="_blank">Revised annexures</a></li></ul>
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<i class="info wellrun"></i> </div><div class="desc"><h4>Did you know?</h4><p>Cape Town’s "City of Hope" Budget draft contains a R40 billion three-year infrastructure budget - a South African record. </p></div></div></span>
<p>We invite you to comment on the new amendments for consideration, while still ensuring compliance with the statutory deadline for annual budget approval by Council before 1 July 2026. The Western Cape Government’s Minister of Finance has been notified and has given approval for the amended timeline.
<br></p><h2 class="sectHeading">Comment period</h2><p>Submit your comments from
<strong>27 May - 10 June 2026 (16:30)</strong>. </p><h2 class="sectHeading">Submit your comment</h2><p>You may submit your comments or representations via the following channels: </p><h4> Online</h4><p>
<a href="https://web1.capetown.gov.za/web1/websitefeedback/?id=6bb09d18-b88e-46c7-9b80-1859b217c25a" target="_blank">Submit your comments online</a>.</p><p>
<strong>Email</strong><br>Email your written comments to
<a href="mailto:Budget.Comments@capetown.gov.za?subject=Comment on the City’s draft Budget for 2025-2026">
<em>Budget.Comments@capetown.gov.za</em></a>.</p><p>
<strong>Delivery</strong><br>Deliver your comments by hand to your nearest
<a href="http://www.capetown.gov.za/Family%20and%20home/Meet-the-City/City-Council/Find-your-councillor-ward-or-subcouncil">Subcouncil office</a>. </p>
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<i class="info note"></i> </div><div class="desc"><h4>Please note</h4><p>We will assist you if you would like to submit comments but have a disability or are unable to read or write. For verbal comments, call
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<a>0800 212 176</a></em>.</p></div></div></span> | | GP0|#cc1f7b28-f43b-45ab-a0f2-08b4fefef7ed;L0|#0cc1f7b28-f43b-45ab-a0f2-08b4fefef7ed|Issues open for public comment;GTSet|#a7cfb90d-44ad-4426-98ce-565f79932396;GPP|#79e6adda-2aa2-4523-bc29-296828216c93 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 27 May - 10 June 2026 (16:30) | 0 |
