eThekwini mayor Cyril Xaba
A ratepayers group has praised eThekwini Municipality mayor Cyril Xaba for successfully reducing some of the proposed tariffs. They called on other city officials to emulate the Mayor when addressing ratepayer concerns.
Last week, the eThekwini Municipality officially adopted the municipality’s 2026/2027 Medium Term Revenue and Expenditure Framework (MTREF), with a total budget of R75.3 billion aimed at accelerating service delivery, infrastructure renewal, and implementing turnaround strategies for the City’s trading services.
The City noted that several public inputs were incorporated into the final budget to provide relief to residents amid ongoing economic pressures. It had revised some of the tariffs amid complaints, including those for water and electricity.
Ish Prahlad, chairperson of the eThekwini Ratepayers and Residents Association, said, “The announcement of the new tariff rates was commendable, but I am not very happy with the water rate. Mayor Xaba was exceptional in helping to bring down the rates, and if he could, he would bring down the rates even more. I think if the other heads of departments thought like our honourable Mayor, he would have succeeded even more. Remember, importantly, if you have good heads of departments and a good management team, you can succeed even more,” he said.
