Community activists accuse DA-led City of undemocratic practices

CIVIL society organisations have described as undemocratic the City's decision to allegedly deny the opportunity to attend the tabling of the budget on Wednesday.

Advocate Rod Solomons, convenor of the #SA1stForum and coordinator of the Push Back Against the City Of Cape Town's Proposed Unaffordable Rates and Service Increases campaign, had planned to attend after he was invited by a councillor, until he was informed guests were no longer allowed to attend the meeting.

In a notice, the City noted that “limited seating” was available for councillors’ guests and media only. 

“Interested members of the public can follow the meeting via a live audio feed on Youtube”. 

GOOD councillor Wesley Neumann noted that they were informed seating had been reserved for officials who worked on the budget document and members of the media. 

However, pictures of the gallery on the day seemingly showed scores of empty seats which could have accommodated members of the public with a vested interest in the meeting. 

Solomons said: “The DA is supposedly the paragon of openness and regularly took the national government to court to demand transparency. The decision by the DA-led City of Cape Town to prohibit members of the public from attending the upcoming Council meeting where the Mayor will introduce the budget is deeply concerning and fundamentally undemocratic. This threatens the open and transparent governance that residents of Cape Town deserve and undermines the principles of accountability and public participation that are vital to a healthy democracy. “

He said transparency must be preserved to ensure that the budget process remains open, inclusive, and accountable to the people it serves.

Speaker Felicity Purchase said Wednesday’s Special Council and Ordinary Council meeting were open, public meetings given that proceedings were livestreamed. 

“Only the in-committee portion of the meeting is closed to the public as has always been the practice.”

Purchase said she determines and gives approval to individuals who request gallery access.

“Given that gallery seating is limited, my office cannot accommodate all requests. My office often receives group requests and has accommodated members of the public, students, choirs, sports teams, local, national and international delegations and must prioritize seating accordingly.

“In this instance… gallery access was prioritised for officials who worked on the budget and accredited members of the press as per my determination as Speaker.”

“Over the last few weeks my Office has also had reports from many councillors who have received death threats and cases have been opened with SAPS in this regard. As such we are also being cautious to protect and ensure the safety and wellbeing of our public representatives,” Purchase said.

Mayor Gordin Hill-Lewis in a statement said they had listened to the public and adjusted the budget. 

“Extending the ‘first R450 000 rates-free’ benefit to all homes up to R7 million property valuation (up from R5m). More pensioners to benefit by raising the qualifying threshold to R27 000 monthly income per household (up from R22 000), regardless of property value, SA’s widest criteria for pensioner support. Reducing City-wide cleaning charges for all residential properties under R20m compared to the tabled March 2025/26 budget. A pensioner rebate for City-Wide Cleaning has also been included, which will offer up to 100% off this charge. Lower fixed water charges for property value bands between R1m and R25m compared to the March tabled budget draft. 

“The above relief measures will lead to lower total monthly bills compared to the March budget. From July, the per unit electricity charge for customers on the Home User and Domestic tariffs is going down. This is made possible by discontinuing the 10% cost embedded in electricity prices that previously paid for city-wide cleaning. We have considered the petition by the Cape Town Collective Ratepayers Association, which calls for the raising of electricity prices instead of a City-Wide Cleaning Tariff. Our modelling shows this will negatively impact households, and that it is better to pursue other means of relief,” said Hill-Lewis.

STOP COCT founder Sandra Dickson said it came as no surprise that the "relief" offered on first calculation amounts to decreases in overall bills of 1 - 2% for properties in the range of R1 million to R6.5million.

“As expected Mayor Hill-Lewis with whom the outrageous capital spending started in 2022 has cornered himself and the City with little room to compromise. The City's Capital Budget increased over 4 years from around R4 billion to the current huge amount of R12.6 billion. The Mayor committed the City to this humongous expansion in infrastructure and now has to find the means to pay for it. The biggest change is in the Cleaning Charge which was more than halved in the up to R20 million cut-off mark. The fixed Water Charge was reduced slightly. 

“The Mayor therefore made a slight shift to the deck chairs on the COCT Titanic. However, the major points ratepayers objected to which is the link to Property Values for calculation of Fixed Charges and the Fixed Charges itself are still all intact and will probably go down eventually with the COCT Titanic,” said Dickson.

Cape Times