10/07/2025
CITY OF CAPE City of Cape Town
Following two rounds of meaningful public participation, the final revised budget not only protects households under R2,5 million as it was designed to do, but also expands relief to more homes.
This is made possible while still retaining the full planned investment in sustainable service delivery and urgent infrastructure priorities, including major water, sanitation, roads, electricity, and public amenity upgrades.
EXPANDED RELIEF MEASURES ADOPTED
โข โFirst R450 000 rates-freeโ benefit extended to all homes up to R7 million property valuation (up from R5 million)
โข More pensioners and social grant recipients to benefit:
o Qualifying threshold raised to R27 000 monthly income per household (from R22 000), regardless of property value, SAโs widest threshold for pensioner support.
Pensioner and Social Grant Recipients: Rates and City-wide Cleaning rebate Monthly household income
100% rebate up to R10 000 monthly household income (up from R7 500)
50% rebate up to R20 000
20% rebate up to R24 000
10% rebate up to the new R27 000 maximum income threshold.
โข Significantly reduced City-wide Cleaning charges for all residential properties under R20 million compared to the initial draft budget tabled in March. The Rebate for Pensioner and Social Grant Recipients now also allows for up to 100% off cleaning charges.
โข Lower fixed water charges for property value bands between R1 million and R25 million compared to the March draft budget.
โข Special debt write-off for historic debt. Qualifying beneficiaries may include:
o Pensioners and social grant recipients with debt older than a year
o Various types of civic and non-profit organisations with debt older than a year
o Registered indigent customers
o Residents of City rental stock and BNG housing
o Owners of properties up to R7 million with historical debt or interest accumulating on their debt
o Those with outstanding debts on final accounts older than one year (instead of three years)
ELECTRICITY PRICE RELIEF AND CITY-WIDE CLEANING
โข From 1 July, the per unit cost for electricity is going down for customers on the Home User Tariff.
โข Domestic Tariff customers will also pay less per unit on Energy Block 2, and relatively the same on Energy Block 1 as in 2024/25.
โข This relief compensates for increased fixed charges and is made possible by discontinuing the practice of including a contribution to city-wide cleaning services in the cost of each electricity unit.
โข City-wide cleaning will now be a standalone charge displayed transparently on the monthly bill and will no longer be paid via electricity purchases as it has been for decades.
โข Special โLifelineโ electricity protection also continues for indigent households and pensioners. Lifeline customers using 600 units will still pay roughly the same in 2025 as they did three years ago in 2022/23.
FIXED CHARGES LINKED TO PROPERTY VALUE
The tariffs have a fixed and a usage component. This is to help cover the cost of service provision. It costs the City the same to supply a service and keep the municipal infrastructure maintained whether more or less is used. However, customers can benefit from using less as this will reduce the monthly costs. The final budget retains the cross-subsidisation from higher income to lower income households to cover the cost of sustainable service delivery via the fixed charge components of the tariffs.
The only alternative to property value determining fixed contributions to infrastructure and fixed service costs, is for everyone to pay a flat charge regardless of whether you are low-income or affluent. This is neither a sustainable nor fair way to fund infrastructure investment and other fixed costs related to service delivery.
All ratepayers can be assured that households at all levels of the property value spectrum do contribute their fair share within their means under the tariff structure for 2025/26.
THANK YOU
Thank you for your valuable monthly contribution to ensuring Cape Town remains South Africaโs City of Hope.
Cape Town has the highest payment ratio of all metros in South Africa. This is in part due to the good governance, unique clean audit achievements and the trust that our customers and residents place in us to enhance service delivery, to create a future-fit City with a zero-tolerance approach toward corruption and fraud.
