NDLAMBE MUNICIPALITY'S 2026/7 ELECTRICITY TARIFFS

From 1 July, Ndlambe Municipality’s new tariffs officially come into effect.  While your June municipal account will still reflect the 2025/6 tariffs, your July account will be the first to include the new charges.   As detailed below, residents and ratepayers will see property rates, refuse removal and sewerage by 5.2% while water and sanitation truck removal have increased by 102%.   Electricity charges have also changed significantly with the tariff structure now placing greater emphases o capacity charges rather than the traditional domestic charge.

ELECTRICITY TARIFFS

An article in one newspaper the other day said the demand these days is for news to be presented in many ways, people want to read it, get it on their phone, listen to it, social media etc.  Someone asked me the other day, what has PARRA done about these increases?!   PARRA started warning residents over two years ago about what was coming down the line via newsletters, articles in the press, public participation meetings etc. and yet somehow despite all those mediums, people are surprised when they receive their accounts.

And now to the BUDGET. Following the 2025/2026 IDP and Budget, PARRA had successfully campaigned for several items to be removed from the 2026/2027 budget and they did not appear in either the new draft budget or draft IDP.   But now despite hundreds of letters to the Municipality sent by residents, ratepayers, PARRA and other organisations following the release of the draft budget and IDP, the Budget was passed by Councillors and to our astonishment and anger, the items that PARRA had successfully had removed suddenly re-appeared!  Financing was again being provided for festivals, substantial allocations for conferences and seminars, accommodation and travel, Catering and hospitality etc.  And this despite the IDP identifying several strategic challenges facing the municipality, including ageing and deteriorating water infrastructure, ageing sanitation and wastewater infrastructure, road maintenance backlogs and the list goes on.

Despite meetings with the Municipality and receiving absolutely no answers to our queries in particular how inconsistencies between the priorities identified in the IDP and the budget can differ so drastically (the IDP is supposed to define the budget), PARRA has now approached National Treasury requesting that it review several aspects of the budget process and its priorities.  Our submission raises concerns regarding whether the Municipality has complied with the requirements of the Municipal Finance Management Act, the Municipal Budget and reporting Regulations and relevant National Treasury Circulars.   We have also questioned why the approved budget appears to differ so markedly from the priorities identified in the Municipality’s own IDP.    We now await National Treasury’s response.