PRESS RELEASE: RP Says Cape Town Rate Hikes Are Daylight Robbery
Referendum Party slams City for choosing to squeeze residents with punishing hikes instead of fighting for fair funding from Pretoria
PRESS RELEASE: RP Says Cape Town Rate Hikes Are Daylight Robbery
The Referendum Party (RP) strongly condemns the City of Cape Town’s proposed 8% average rates hike for 2025/2026 - a punishing blow to hardworking ratepayers already buckling under a weak economy.
The proposed increases are well above inflation and will hit middle-class homeowners hardest. Properties valued over R1.5 million will see disproportionate hikes, with those above R3 million facing double-digit increases. In addition, new fixed charges on electricity, sanitation, and cleaning will tack on nearly R300 per month to a typical R1.5 million home - with no added services to show for it. After Cape Town property prices have already surged 160% since 2010, many long-term residents simply cannot keep up.
RP Executive Committee Member Robert King said: “This is daylight robbery. Cape Town’s ratepayers already face one of the highest tax burdens in the world. Now they’re expected to pay even more - while the money they send to Pretoria is looted or handed out to corrupt politicians in other provinces.”
The RP argues the scale of these hikes is directly linked to surging migration into Cape Town, much of it from indigent populations. The City’s own R40 billion infrastructure plan, spread over three years, allocates 75% of spending to low-income areas, with major investments into illegal settlements.
Even the DA itself admitted in 2023 that “millions have fled failed-state conditions created by the ANC” and blamed this influx for budget shortfalls in the Western Cape. The RP supports the right of people to move in search of a better life - but not at the cost of Cape Town ratepayers being turned into an open wallet for ANC failures elsewhere - especially when a majority of residents in Cape Town have never voted for them in the first place.
The problem is further compounded by the City’s refusal to allow a supporting submission in the SAPOA rates case, which would have argued that Cape Town is underfunded by national government and entitled to a greater share of revenue under Section 214 of the Constitution. Rather than pursuing additional funding from the national fiscus, the City opted to place the burden squarely on local ratepayers.
Cape Town residents deserve a fair deal from their elected politicians - not endless hikes and hidden charges.