The Democratic Alliance (DA) says the City of Tshwane’s admission that it is double-billing residents is proof that the metro is facing a full-blown billing crisis.

Thousands of households that already pay over R400 a month for weekly waste collection were wrongly charged an extra R223.00 for a so-called City Cleansing Levy.

The DA’s Cilliers Brink says the levy, pushed through by the African National Congress, Economic Freedom Fighters and ActionSA coalition, amounts to ‘money for nothing’ as no new cleaning services were allocated.

“The City has confirmed that it double-billed complexes that already used the city’s weekly waste collection service. It is now committed to redressing this problem, but this admission only confirms that the mayor has lost control of the situation by not exercising any significant oversight over her MMC for finance, and in fact, this admission gives additional reasons why this levy should be set aside.”

After pushback by the DA, Tshwane has admitted to double billing thousands of residents who already pay for weekly bin lifting through the ‘cleansing levy’. We’ll ensure those charges are reversed. This is what happens when you rush to tax the city out of financial trouble, the… pic.twitter.com/7BoPPGomaT

— Cilliers Brink (@CilliersB) September 27, 2025