Subsidies on water, sanitation, and refuse charges for indigent households and homes caring for vulnerable people have not necessarily been automatically applied since 1 July
- Homes catering for the disabled are supposed to benefit from rates rebates and service charge subsidies under the City’s new 2025/26 budget.
- But the Turfhall Cheshire Home has not been receiving the subsidies and is struggling to get assistance from the City.
- The director of a local children’s home says they have also not been subsidised.
- The City says qualifying homes and households need to apply on an annual basis.
The City’s new “pro-poor” budget offers significant rebates and subsidies to organisations caring for vulnerable people, but some qualifying homes are not seeing these benefits reflected on their municipal bills.
Three months since these rates and subsidies came into effect with the new 2025/26 budget, a number of public benefit organisations say the rates and services relief is not properly reflected on their monthly municipal bill, if at all.
Board chairperson of the Turfhall Cheshire Home, Gary van Zyl, said he was only alerted to the subsidies available in the 2025/26 budget when he found a leaflet in the postbox of his residential home, which gave information on discounts for poor residents and pensioners.
As the Turfhall Cheshire Home in Hanover Park cares for 60 physically disabled residents, most of whose only source of income is a SASSA grant, van Zyl said he believed they should all individually qualify for the 100% discount on rates and refuse removal applicable to people earning less than R7,500 per month. As indigent individuals, they would also qualify for 15kl of water per month free of charge, and 10.5kl of sewerage services.
Struggle for information
Van Zyl said he spent two months sending emails to the City Director of Revenue and to the rates rebate email account seeking clarity, but got no response. It was only when he recently complained to an opposition councillor, he said, that he finally got a response from the City the next day.
The email from the City provided the 85 page budget annexure on tariff policy, and the 30-page annexure on rates policy.
From studying these, Mother City News concludes that the Turfhall Cheshire Home, as a Public Benefit Organisation (PBO) catering to physically disabled people, qualifies for the following subsidies on water, sanitation, and refuse removal:
For water, the home should receive a free basic allocation of 45kl per month (60 residents receiving 750l per month free allocation). There should be no fixed water charge.
For sanitation, the home should receive 31.5kl free per month (60 residents receiving 525l per month free allocation). There should be no fixed sanitation charge.
For refuse removal, there should be a 50% rebate for the first 15 bins, and no fixed city-wide cleaning charge.
But from the August municipal bill van Zyl shared, there are no free allocations for water and sanitation noted, and the home is being billed a fixed basic charge for water and for sanitation. Cumulatively, these two fixed charges amount to just under R3,000 per month.
There is also no rebate calculated for the first 15 of the home’s 19 refuse bins.
However, no city-wide cleaning charge is levied, and the home appears to receive a rebate on its property rates. The municipal bill does recognise the home as owned by a PBO and used “for specified public benefit activities”, yet the service charge subsidies are not applied.
The Durbanville Children’s Home, however, has been receiving the subsidies since 1 July.
A copy of their municipal bill forwarded by the children’s home manager Johanna Strauss, shows free allocations for water and sanitation services, and there are no fixed charges. They do not seem to get a subsidy on their refuse removal, though.
Director of St George’s Home for Girls in Wynberg, Graeme Cairns, said they did not get rebates and subsidies on their municipal bill.
Cairns said they used to get a rates rebate and subsidies on water and sanitation but “shortly after covid they just stopped”.
He said they’ve been paying the full amounts since then. “For some reason they stopped the rebates. They never told us why.”
He said he did not know St. George’s qualified for subsidies under the new budget. Mother City News has not had sight of St. George’s municipal bill.
Major expense
Van Zyl said with a monthly bill upwards of R55,000 per month, costs to the City equal 10% or more of their annual expenditure of R5.4-million.
This is significant as they have a shortfall of about R1.5-million a year, for which they have to fundraise.
He said residents normally raise about R30,000 of this shortfall by asking for donations for the home at nearby shopping centres. But this income is at risk due to the City’s plan to cut the Dial-a-Ride service which the Cheshire Home residents rely on. (Cuts to Dial-a-Ride were originally planned from 8 September but are on hold following the Western Cape Network on Disability launching an urgent application at the Western Cape High Court for an interim interdict to stop the impending implementation of t.)
By far the largest expense on the home’s municipal bill is electricity, costing them more than R50,000 on their latest bill, but no free units are available to them. This is in line with the City’s published policy that states there is no free electricity if monthly usage is above 450kWh per month. With 450kWh being about what a middle class home of four or five people would use, the Cheshire home is well above that usage per month.
Electricity is also the largest expense for the Durbanville Children’s Home, costing in the region of R80,000 per month. Strauss said she’s been trying to phone the municipality to find out whether they could get a reduction on their electricity charges. She said she first called about two weeks ago and was told the City would get back to her, but have not done so.
City response
City spokesperson Luthando Tyhalibongo said in terms of electricity charges, Turfhall Cheshire Home was classified as a commercial small power user – high, which is the lowest rate within the commercial category.
Mother City News can confirm that Durbanville Children’s Home falls under the same category.
Tyhalibongo said the City was investigating whether Turfhall Cheshire Home “qualifies for service assistance across the board”.
He said the City had attempted to contact “the complainant” but had not yet succeeded in doing so. However, he said it seemed Turfhall Cheshire Home’s municipal account was classified as an non-profit organisation (NPO) and thus were not receiving the water rebate. This could be rectified.
However, the Turfhall Cheshire Home bill seen by Mother City News states under the rates section: “Property owned by PBO & used for specified public benefit activities.”
Tyhalibongo said a refuse rebate was also available for the organisation and Turfhall Cheshire Home “would need to approach the City to provide the supporting documentation”.
Qualifying criteria are available to view on the City’s website.
Asked whether the City identifies properties that qualify for the relevant rebates for which they may qualify, Tyhalibongo said they do not invite organisations individually and there is an application process.
“The City publishes the categories and available support on its website and rebates for services in the budget advertising. It also issues various media releases encouraging all customers who require support to make use of the City’s rates rebate and indigent services offerings.”
The City’s policy annexures to the budget do state that organisations such as children’s homes, homes for the aged, homes for the physically and mentally challenged, and other qualifying organisations, as well as indigent households, need to apply annually for the City’s rates rebate and service charge subsidies.