Rates Watch (Pty) Ltd

05/06/2026

Residential property owners who are pensioners, or individuals certified as physically or mentally disabled are reminded to apply for the 2026/2027 Pensioners' Rebate.Successful applications will qualify for a 45% reduction on property rates, in addition to the standard residential property rebates available to all qualifying property owners.Current beneficiaries receiveing the 45% rebate are urged to reapply by the 30 June 2026 to ensure that the rebate continues without interuption, subject to ongoing eligibility.

New applications will open on 1 July 2026 and close on the 30 September 2026.

Residents are urged to check the Mogale City Website or follow their social media pages for more official updates.

04/06/2026

The Western Cape High Court has handed ratepayers a significant victory, declaring three charges introduced by the City of Cape Town in its 2025/2026 budget unlawful and invalid.

The charges — a city-wide cleaning charge, a fixed water charge, and a fixed sewerage charge — were all calculated according to property value bands rather than actual consumption or use and/or the costs associated with rendering the service. SAPOA and AfriForum brought separate applications challenging the charges, with the Good Party granted leave to intervene in support of ratepayers.

The Court found the charges unlawful on several grounds. Most fundamentally, municipalities charging fees for services must comply with section 74 of the Municipal Systems Act (Act 32 of 2000), which requires that tariff policies reflect the principle that users pay generally in proportion to their use of a service.

The Western Cape High Court has handed ratepayers a significant victory, declaring three charges introduced by the City of Cape Town in its 2025/2026 budget unlawful and invalid.

03/06/2026

The South African Property Owners’ Association (Sapoa) has raised concerns over the Mangaung metro’s plans to change the structure of its waste removal tariffs for non-residential customers and link it to the value of their property.

This follows Sapoa, which represents commercial property owners countrywide, having successfully challenged the City of Cape Town’s city-wide cleaning levy and fixed charges for water and sanitation for 2026/27, which were structured in a similar fashion.

The Western Cape High Court recently declared this unlawful and set the tariffs side.

The City of Cape Town has until Friday to indicate whether it will try to appeal the ruling or adjust its budget, which must be implemented on 1 July.

The association argues this approach is unlawful, pointing to a previous Western Cape High Court ruling that struck down similar tariffs in Cape Town.

22/05/2026

What happens if your Municipal Bill is too High?

15/05/2026

Summary

The White Paper is a system-wide reform document reviewing the 1998 White Paper on Local Government. Initiated by Cabinet in 2022 and publicly launched in May 2025, it draws on 266 public submissions, stakeholder engagements, and research papers. It contains approximately 65 policy recommendations across 10 substantive chapters, structured around five pillars: a unified local government system; clean and capable governance; differentiated powers and functions (with a pathway to a single-tier future); partnership-based relational governance; and financial and service delivery reform.

The White Paper is candid about the scale of failure: only 41 of 257 municipalities achieved clean audits in a recent snapshot; consumer debt to municipalities exceeded R400 billion by 2024/25; and Eskom tariffs to municipalities have risen by 910% in nominal terms since 2008 (quadrupling in real terms), severely eroding household affordability and municipal cross-subsidisation capacity.

The White Paper is a system-wide reform document reviewing the 1998 White Paper on Local Government. Initiated by Cabinet in 2022 and publicly launched in May 2025, it draws on 266 public submissions, stakeholder engagements, and research papers.

30/04/2026

Submission of comments on the 2026/2027 municipal draft budgets are now open and you are welcome to view these draft budgets by clicking on the various municipalities below.

Buffalo City

City of Cape Town

City of Johannesburg

City of Tshwane

Ekurhuleni City

eThekwini

Mangaung

Mbombela

Nelson Mandela Bay

Polokwane

Tzaneen

You are encouraged to review the relevant budgets and submit any comments directly to the respective municipalities within the stipulated time-frames.

Submission of comments on the 2026/2027 municipal draft budgets are now open and you are welcome to view these draft budgets by clicking on the various municipalities below

16/04/2026

The City of Johannesburg invites all ratepayers to join a public meeting to comment on the draft 2026/27 Integrated Development Plan (IDP), draft medium-term Budget, draft Rates Policy, draft Rates By-laws, proposed Rates Tariffs and proposed tariffs for trading services and other services from the public and any interested organisations in the City.

Meeting Schedule

2026-IDP-Meeting-ScheduleDownload

Copies of the draft documents can be downloaded from the City's website (joburg.org) or hard copies may be viewed at the regional offices as listed on the City's website.

Submissions can be made through the following channels and should reach the City by not later than Monday, 18 May 2026 at 17:00:

- Online by visiting www.joburg.org.za (under key documents).

The City of Johannesburg invites all ratepayers to join a public meeting to comment on the draft 2026/27 Integrated Development Plan (IDP), draft medium-term Budget, draft Rates Policy, draft Rates By-laws, proposed Rates Tariffs and proposed tariffs for trading services and other services from the....

14/04/2026

Cape Town homeowners are entering a new cycle of property valuations that will influence municipal bills for the next few years. The City’s latest General Valuation Roll, known as GV2025, reassesses the municipal value of nearly every property in the metro and will form the basis for calculating municipal rates from July 2026 onward. This will remain in place until the next valuation cycle. This latest valuation process covers roughly 970 000 properties and will be used to determine property rates, a tax paid by homeowners to fund municipal services such as roads, waste removal and public infrastructure. For many residents, the valuation process may feel abstract, yet it has very real financial implications.

Cape Town homeowners are entering a new cycle of property valuations that will influence municipal bills for the next few years.

02/04/2026

Appeal backlogs continue across several municipalities

City of Johannesburg

In addition, 97 decisions on GV2018 supplementary roll objections remain outstanding. Depending on the outcomes of these objections, the number of appeals may still increase.A total of 1 039 appeals were submitted by Rates Watch on the current valuation roll (GV2023). During 2024 and 2025, 994 appeals were heard. The bulk of the outstanding matters relate to residential properties categorised as Business and Commercial.Although the City was unsuccessful in its review of an appeal board decision relating to the categorisation of residential properties developed on erven zoned for business purposes ( https://www.rateswatch.co.za/our-newsletters/rates-watch-newsletter-2025/), and its application for leave to appeal was also refused, these matters have not yet been scheduled for hearings.Rates Watch will inform affected clients as soon as their appeals are scheduled.

There are 84 Rates Watch appeals from the previous valuation roll and supplementary valuation rolls (GV2018) still to be heard.

02/04/2026

New valuation rolls scheduled for implementation in July 2026

These include:• Breed Valley • City of Cape Town • Drakenstein • Emalahleni (Mpumalanga) • Emfuleni • Ethekwini Metro • KwaDukuza • Mangaung Metro • Rand West City A list of general and supplementary valuation rolls currently open for inspection and objection is available on the Rates Watch website:https://www.rateswatch.co.za/

Property owners should review new valuation rolls carefully once they are published to ensure that valuations and property categorisations are accurate.

More than 30 municipalities are expected to implement new valuation rolls on 1 July 2026.