CAPE TOWN – 15 September 2026
A new investigation by political commentator Willem Petzer, essayist Rob Duigan, and economist Dr Adi Schlebusch has raised alarm over the growing fiscal burden on Cape Town’s middle-class households, describing the city’s revenue model as a “ticking time bomb” heading into the 2026 local elections.
The trio’s findings come amid a year of intense public backlash against the City of Cape Town’s R87.8 billion “City of Hope” budget, adopted in June after a High Court ruling forced changes to its water and sanitation tariff structure.
The core problem: bills outpacing incomes
Their investigation builds on a growing body of evidence showing that Cape Town’s municipal bills have risen far faster than inflation and salary growth over the past decade. A Daily Maverick analysis in February found that the average property rates component alone had risen by approximately 170% across a sample of households, outstripping the average rise in property value (around 131%). The gap was further widened by the introduction of new fixed charges – a city-wide cleaning levy, fixed basic water and sewerage charges, and an electricity home user and wires charge – that did not exist 10 years ago.
Election-year pressure
The timing of the City’s revenue strategy has drawn particular criticism. With local elections approaching, the city’s dependence on middle-class ratepayers for revenue is seen as politically untenable. Civil society activist Natasha Gertze has argued that while the City announced a 10.2% reduction in the residential rate-in-rand, rising property valuations mean homeowners will collectively pay nearly R1 billion more in rates this year.
Ratepayers have voiced their frustration directly. One resident told the Cape Argus in September: “My rates and taxes have increased to such an extent that they are nearly 50% of the bond I am paying.”
A widening political rift
The fiscal strain is already eroding the DA’s traditional support base among Cape Town’s affluent suburbs. A Business Day report in May noted that wealthy residents are “turning on the DA” over what they perceive as a shift in the party’s priorities, with one ward 62 resident estimating a 40% increase in rates over five years.
The City, for its part, maintains that its model is “pro-poor” – that fixed charges linked to property value shield lower-income households while generating the revenue needed for its record R40 billion infrastructure investment programme, which includes R16.7 billion for water and sanitation, R6 billion for electricity grid upgrades, and R3.3 billion for MyCiTi expansion into the Cape Flats.
Critics, however, argue the model represents a “deliberate shift from visible taxation to hidden extraction,” with the middle class effectively subsidising both infrastructure and service delivery to lower-income communities through a mechanism that is structurally unsustainable.
What the researchers found
Petzer, Duigan, and Schlebusch say their combined investigation uncovered a pattern that goes beyond the publicly known tariff and valuation data. Their central argument is that the City is running out of middle-class money to extract, and that the fiscal model will reach a breaking point if not reformed.
The City has not yet responded to the video’s specific findings.
