The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Capricorn District Municipality (CDM) has rejected the ANC-led municipality’s 2026/27 to 2028/29 Medium-Term Revenue and Expenditure Forecast (MTREF) Budget.
The DA was the only party in Council to vote against the budget. While other parties chose to rubber-stamp yet another budget that prioritises bureaucracy over service delivery, the DA could not, in good conscience, support a budget that continues to channel excessive resources towards salaries while critical infrastructure deteriorates and residents receive increasingly poor services.
National Treasury guidelines recommend that employee-related costs should not exceed 40% of a municipality’s operating budget. CDM has breached this threshold, allocating just under R500 million to salaries in the coming financial year — a staggering 42% of its operating budget.
At a time when residents expect reliable water and sanitation services, Council should be taking difficult but necessary decisions to streamline the administration, improve efficiency, and redirect resources towards service delivery. Instead, the ANC has chosen to maintain an unsustainable salary bill while neglecting core infrastructure.
The irrationality of this budget was further exposed during the same Council sitting when the Green Drop Performance Outcome Report revealed that CDM achieved an overall compliance score of only 36%, far below the required standard of 90%.
Of concern is that two of the district’s five wastewater treatment works were classified as being in a critical state, while the remaining three were rated as poor. According to the 2025 Green Drop Report, approximately R28 million is required to rehabilitate these facilities.
Despite these dismal failures, this budget allocates no funding to address these critical failures, a decision that was blindly supported by the ANC and every other party represented in Council.
To add insult to injury, residents will now be subjected to a massive 22% increase in water and sanitation tariffs from 1 July 2026; a direct consequence of years of poor financial planning and inadequate tariff adjustments that failed to keep pace with rising costs. Once again, residents are being forced to pay the price for the failures of those entrusted to govern.
CDM is steadily drifting towards a financial and service delivery crisis, compounded by a revenue collection rate that continues to languish below 50%. No municipality can remain sustainable under these conditions without decisive intervention and a fundamental shift in priorities.
The DA remains committed to fighting for a municipality that puts residents and service delivery before bureaucracy.
Real change will only come through the ballot box. We therefore urge residents to ensure they are registered to vote during the upcoming voter registration weekend on 20 and 21 June 2026.