Grant Pascoe
Cape Town calls itself a caring city. Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis speaks often about dignity and service to the people. But on the ground thousands of pensioners are being failed by the very system that claims to help them. The City’s rebate, indigent and credit control policies are not working for the people they are meant to protect. In fact, they are creating more harm.
Pensioners Rebate System Designed for Exclusion
The City offers property rates rebates for people aged 60 or older who earn R17 500 or less per month. On paper pensioners can get between 10 and 100 percent off their rates depending on their income. But the system is full of red tape. Pensioners must reapply, fill in long forms, submit ID copies, bank statements, income slips and affidavits. There is no automatic renewal. There is no flexibility for those with limited access to printers, transport or email. Many give up before they even finish the process.
Billing System Full of Errors
Even when residents apply correctly and meet the criteria the rebate is often not added to their account. Some wait months. Others receive final notices for amounts they do not understand. The City’s billing system is full of errors yet the burden to fix it is placed on the pensioner.
Pensioners who try to make payment arrangements are sent from one department to another. Credit control enforcement continues even if a rebate application is pending. Many report being threatened with disconnection or legal action while still waiting for their rebates to be processed. The City’s credit control policy makes no clear protection for pending applications. Instead of providing relief the City pushes people further into stress and fear.
Indigent Policy Too Narrow
The indigent policy is even more narrow. Only households earning less than R7 500 per month qualify. That excludes many pensioners who live just above that line but still cannot afford the high cost of rates and services. These residents fall through the cracks. Too poor to cope but not poor enough to qualify.
When a pensioner dies the rebate is immediately removed even if the family still lives in the home and has not yet sorted out the estate. Heirs are then expected to reapply, submit new documents and settle arrears even while grieving. Meanwhile interest and charges keep adding up. This is not compassion. It is cold enforcement.
WATCH Rebate System Failing Pensioners – Late Pensioner’s Heirs Inherit Incorrect Bill
WATCH Sharon Dilworth, a Cape Town-born expat living abroad came home for her mom’s funeral to find her siblings dealing with a R12000 bill after her mom, a month before her passing in January 2025 was told that her balance was only R49.
In her video Sharon calls on Capetonians to pursue a class action law suit against the city as she is well aware that many families are going through the same difficulties with the City of Cape Town and that it is mostly Coloured families affect by this sytemic failure.
Sharon captioned her Facebook post: “Wie word ook so ‘n kop aan gesit deur die City of Cape Town? Hulle sal dit nooit weer doen nie. Glo vir my!!!”
Questions About Transparency and Legality of Billing Arrears
There are also growing complaints about how the City handles arrears. Many residents say water debt is silently moved onto the rates account cancelling out any rebate they may have qualified for. Others say the City refuses to give clear breakdowns of what is owed. This raises serious questions about transparency and legality.
Under the Municipal Finance Management Act and the Municipal Systems Act the City is required to give residents accurate clear and understandable billing. If charges are being moved or applied without consent or explanation the City is in breach of those obligations.
Punitive Credit Control System a Systemic Failure
Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis cannot ignore this. These are not isolated cases. This is systemic failure. It is a rebate system that excludes. A credit control system that punishes. And an indigent policy that leaves people behind.
Pensioners are not asking for charity. They are asking for fairness. They are asking for what the City promised them. Right now that promise is broken.
If Cape Town wants to be called a caring city, then it must act like one. It must stop blaming the elderly for the City’s failures. It must fix the system. And it must do so now.
