Speak now or pay later: South Africans urged to fight unfair budgets as municipal plans hit the table

Key topics:Citizens urged to challenge unfair municipal rate hikesCAN equips communities to engage in local budgetsPublic input vital to prevent mismanagement and corruption .Sign up for your early morning brew of the BizNews Insider to keep you up to speed with the content that matters. The newsletter will land in your inbox at 5:30am weekdays. Register here.Support South Africa’s bastion of independent journalism, offering balanced insights on investments, business, and the political economy, by joining BizNews Premium. Register here.If you prefer WhatsApp for updates, sign up to the BizNews channel here..By Kerry Lanaghan.Listen to this story instead:.As South Africa’s municipalities publish their draft budgets for the 2025/26 financial year, citizens are being called upon to speak up before it's too late. The Community Action Network (CAN) initiative of the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA) spearheads a nationwide campaign urging residents to participate in public budget consultations and prevent unfair rate hikes and poor spending decisions from going unchecked.By law, all municipalities must make their draft budgets available for public comment by 31 March, with a 30-day window for input. These documents outline how municipalities allocate funds in the coming year, often including tariff increases that outpace inflation. In a country grappling with rising living costs and widespread service delivery failures, CAN believes citizen participation is not just a right - but a necessity.“Municipal budgets are critical,” says Julius Kleynhans, OUTA’s executive manager for local government. “They determine how much is spent on fixing potholes, maintaining parks, improving electricity and water infrastructure - essential services that affect our daily lives.”Kleynhans warns that municipalities become vulnerable to mismanagement and political interference when residents fail to engage. “If communities don’t participate, those decisions are left to politicians - often out of tune with local needs. That can lead to waste, neglect, and even corruption.”CAN has developed a powerful set of tools to bridge the gap between complex budget documents and ordinary citizens. According to Jonathan Erasmus, CAN’s project manager, the organisation has created easy-to-understand guides, budget timelines, and submission templates to help people get involved meaningfully.“Commenting on a budget isn’t just about saying ‘no’ to a rate hike,” explains Erasmus. “It’s about understanding how your municipality is spending your money and ensuring it aligns with the real needs of your community.”A key feature of CAN’s toolkit is a guide to reading municipal budgets through the Municipal Standard Chart of Accounts (mSCOA) - a system used across South Africa. This allows users to locate specific items, such as infrastructure spending or administrative costs, and raise informed objections when needed.And the impact is real. Kleynhans points to several success stories, including freezing a proposed property rate increase in Johannesburg during COVID-19 and scrapping an unpopular recycling levy. “We’ve also seen communities lobby for and secure funding for vital infrastructure - water reservoirs, road surfacing, and even small traffic safety measures.”For those who think their voice won’t make a difference, Kleynhans offers a firm rebuttal: “The lack of public oversight is part of the reason our municipalities are in crisis. Oversight discourages corruption and forces accountability. If we had exercised our rights ten years ago, we might not be facing the extent of decay we see today.”He believes the solution lies in co-governance. “The future of local government is not just in electing leaders, but in citizens actively shaping and overseeing how services are delivered. Municipalities shouldn’t be ideological - they exist to provide the basics that allow people and businesses to thrive.”Kleynhans concludes with a reminder that civic engagement begins at home. “People don’t invest in countries; they invest in communities. That’s where your kids go to school, where you work, where you live. We have much more to lose if we don’t protect and build those spaces together.”With budgets now open for comment, CAN urges all South Africans to review their municipality’s plans and make their voices count. Visit CAN's website to access tools and resources and be part of shaping your community's future.Read also:RW Johnson: Why the ANC’s decline now looks inevitableBN Briefing - ANC: Trump is tormenting us everyday; Mbeki: ANC is inept; Trump pauses tariffsAyanda Zulu: Afriforum’s documentary validates Trump’s concerns

Speak now or pay later: South Africans urged to fight unfair budgets as municipal plans hit the table

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