The eThekwini Ratepayers Protest Movement (ERPM) is demanding to know what happened to the infrastructure surcharge money that has already been collected by the city.

In July 2022, the municipality added an additional infrastructure surcharge on every account with R1,50/kl for water and the same amount for sewage disposal to be charged for three financial years starting in 2022/2023.

According to municipal reports, the money from surcharges were supposed to be placed in a dedicated ring-fenced capital reserve account to be utilised for the sole purpose of maintaining, securing, and replacing water and sanitation infrastructure.

In November 2024, the ERPM lodged a Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) application requesting a reconciled accounting of the infrastructure surcharge. Deputy Chairperson of the ERPM Rose Cortes said they requested to know how much has been collected to date and where the money had been spent.

Cortes said the PAIA came out of repeated requests to EWS for the same information. Cortes noted that the surcharge line item was not included in the previous year's budget.

“Our requests for information from the relevant departments was met with silence. After requesting two extensions to respond to our application, it finally arrived last Friday. And what we have is another absence of information requested. A complete non response. But a warning that this surcharge is set to be repeated in the next financial years to come,” Cortes said.

In a recent Executive Committee meeting, eThekwini Mayor Cyril Xaba said that in the last three months, the municipality has seen an unprecedented rate of water supply interruptions or outages. At the meeting the eThekwini Water and Sanitation Unit (EWS) stated that the department had exhausted its maintenance budget. The EWS requires a budget of R670 million instead of the current R256 million they received.

Cortes said that correspondence received from the municipality on January 31, 2025 stated that, “The surcharge collected will not meet the required budget amount. The unit plans to request the extension of the surcharge for a further 2 years. Communities will be engaged during the upcoming budget consultations.”

The ERPM said they did not get a response on the surcharge collected thus far and expenditure to date.

“With this being in effect for 3 years, we haven’t seen any significant upgrades to our collapsing infrastructure. The fact that they are seeking to extend the collection without being able to prove how they have spent what has already been collected is alarming,” Cortes added.

In a municipal report from February 2022, the EWS stated that due to the old age and high utilisation, much of the water and sanitation and electrical equipment has reached the end of its technical lifetime and as a result, unplanned breakdowns are occurring.

The EWS stated that to rectify the situation it is recommended that a dedicated and high impact rectification programme be implemented to rapidly turn this status around.

The EWS stated that the capital budget was insufficient and that the surcharge will assist the unit in obtaining an additional funding source to maintain the sustainable provision of water and sanitation services.

At the time the EWS needed R109,6 billion for the replacement costs of the water and sanitation infrastructure. The city anticipated that within the three years the target of R1 billion would be raised to expedite the upgrades.

The ERPM are preparing to launch a mass campaign against the municipality.

The eThekwini municipality did not respond to questions at the time publication.

zainul.dawood@inl.co.za