Your article “BCM raises rates and service fees” (Daily Dispatch, June 30) refers. The attitude of the ANC-led BCM relating to tariff adjustments (I refuse to use the word increase) is typical of the ruling party and its councils.
It demonstrates how far from reality BCM and the ANC are from the issues facing the public.
How can they justify adjustments (increases) in tariffs which are well in excess of the published inflation rate for SA?
This rate is in the 4-6% range and the ANC consistently raises tariffs by 50-100% more than that.
For me, this just demonstrates that the ANC and BCM think the public is a bottomless pit of money which can be milked ad infinitum.
Electricity tariffs have risen by more than 400% the past 10 years, but unemployment has skyrocketed and foreign investors fled the country in the same period.
Do they not understand that there is a limit to the ability of citizens to absorb unreasonable adjustments? Do they not see that these issues are intimately linked together?
BCM must seriously reconsider these excessive tariff adjustments at a time when citizens are facing a myriad of challenges.
The ramifications of the Covid-19 pandemic will come back to bite councillors if they are not careful.
D Saunders, via e-mail