The eThekwini Municipality Cleansing and Solid Waste Unit (CSW) intends increasing the domestic refusal removal tariffs by 9.9% with effect from 1 July 2025.

A report from the trading services committee chairperson Mdu Nkosi tabled at the Executive Committee (Exco) meeting, on Tuesday, stated that the review takes into consideration proposed 2025/26 budget costs increases; current prices prevailing in the marketplace and the department's pricing strategy of ensuring provision of affordable services and justified costs.

Nkosi said the provision of waste services is a capital-intensive function. This requires adequate infrastructure in terms of landfill sites and transfer stations, which is costly to operate and maintain. Nkosi said operational expenses are significantly high, due to escalating costs of vehicle and infrastructure maintenance.

“Provision of waste management services remains a priority for the government. Having conducted costs analysis, it has been discovered that the actual costs of running waste management services in eThekwini is escalating such that even the proposed 9.9% does not represent full costs recovery,” Nkosi said.

The fleet, landfill sites, transfer stations, garden sites, depot buildings and employees were identified as the major costs drivers.

These include:

694 vehicles in the fleet (fuel, maintenance and licensing)
4 landfill sites but two fully operational and 7 transfer stations (maintenance, compliance cost and security)
14 garden sites (maintenance and security)
23,777 employees (salaries and benefits, consumables and security)
30 depot buildings (maintenance, utilities and security)

Nkosi said that the CSW unit has also undertaken trend analysis, looking at the operating expenditure, income by operational category and 5-year costs comparatives. Nkosi said the proposed tariffs will accordingly undergo the public participation process, together with draft budget for the 2025/26 financial year.

Nkosi said for the CSW to achieve financial sustainability and full costs recovery, a tariff increase of above 40% is required.

“Cognisance is taken of the current economic turmoil, hence, the proposed 9.9% increase to deliver on a mandate of providing affordable service to the local communities,” Nkosi said.

Upon hearing about the proposed increase the eThekwini Residents and Ratepayers Association (ERRA) spokesperson Ish Prahladh said the increase is not justified. He said the CSW needed to get their services in order.

“Pick up is very erratic and we hear of more strikes than actual work This results in uncollected domestic refuse for days. The formal sector is always downplayed for services, which are the only ones that are paying for the service,” Prahladh said.

Ethekwini Ratepayers Protest Movement’s (ERPM) Asad Gafar called for more oversight into the budgeting processes.

“Clearly there is a problem with the actual budgeting process which needs to be looked into,” he said.

Member of the Exco and Democratic Alliance (DA) councillor Yogis Govender said the CSW unit was not performing properly, there was a lack ,if not any, delivery of quality black refuse bags and poor law enforcement.

“Why should residents be punished. They are not getting value for their money. There was also no accountability,” she said.

ANC Exco member Councillor Nkosenhle Madlala said the ANC supported the increase because the solution to the problem and challenges in the CSW were centred around insufficient funding.

“If you call out the head of the unit on service delivery gaps he will cite funding. People that use the service must pay for it. If there are gaps in service delivery, going forward, we are here to play an oversight role,” Madlala said.

zainul.dawood@inl.co.za