Your Rates, Your Voice
Over the past three years, municipal rates and fixed charges in Mossel Bay have increased by more than 100%, while inflation has averaged approximately 4.5% per annum. Over the same period, state pensions increased by only 2.9%, and municipal employment costs rose at an estimated 7–8%.
For households, pensioners, and small businesses, this divergence is unsustainable. Incomes, pensions, and operating revenues generally track inflation, not municipal tariff increases. When municipal charges rise at multiples of income growth, affordability is eroded and arrears become inevitable.
Rather than relying on natural revenue growth from new developments and expanding suburbs, the municipality has increasingly depended on sharp increases in rates and fixed charges. This approach shifts financial pressure onto existing ratepayers and raises concerns about long-term fairness, affordability, and financial sustainability.
Pegging increases to inflation ensures predictability and fairness. With new suburbs and holiday homes already adding to the revenue base, Mossel Bay can afford to align with inflation without sacrificing service delivery. Ratepayers deserve stability—not the uncertainty of political projects driving their bills higher year after year.
Mossel Bay has historically been regarded as a financially healthy municipality. Growth in property developments and limited-use holiday homes expanded the revenue base while helping to keep rates and service charges relatively affordable for residents.
That balance has since been adversely impacted. Decisions to accelerate capital programmes and policy commitments, without sufficiently leveraging external funding or phasing implementation, have increased reliance on higher rates and fixed charges. While these costs are not always levied directly as once-off charges, residents are nevertheless required to contribute through sustained increases in municipal rates and tariffs.
We propose a framework to restore balance:
Cap all annual municipal increases at the official inflation midpoint (4.5%).
Require full public consultation and justification for any deviation.
Ensure proper engagement and communications with Rate payers
Stop taxing residents for long-term projects that should be financed sustainably.
South Africa’s inflation targeting policy sets a 3%–6% band, with a midpoint of 4.5%. Yet Mossel Bay has imposed cumulative increases of 95% in just three years. Aligning local rates with national inflation policy would safeguard residents while still funding essential services.
Pensioners, low-income families, and unemployed residents are the hardest hit. They cannot offset sudden hikes with new income. Inflation-linked increases protect these households, ensuring fairness while preventing poverty from deepening in a city that is otherwise thriving.
Communities across South Africa are pushing back against steep hikes. From Cape Town to Johannesburg, the demand is the same: keep increases aligned with inflation. Mossel Bay can lead by example—or risk joining the growing list of municipalities facing public backlash.
Moss Rates calls for all future municipal increases in Mossel Bay to be capped at inflation. Where extraordinary funding is needed, transparent consultation and sustainable financing—not blanket hikes—must be the solution.
Mossel Bay is a wealthy, growing city. With new revenue streams already in place, there is no justification for burdening residents with a cost burden that doubles very three years. By pegging rates and charges to inflation, we can protect households, and keep Mossel Bay’s finances sustainable for the future.