Ekurhuleni Gives R1bn Tax Incentives To The Indigent Despite COVID-19 Induced Revenue Losses

THALIA HOLMES

AS THE City of Ekurhuleni Finance and Economic Development Mayoral Committee Member (MMC) Nkosindiphile Xhakaza delivered his 2020 budget speech to a masked audience spaced widely apart in the legislature with several of his colleagues looking on via Microsoft Teams, the moment could not have been more aptly described than the words chosen by the MMC himself: “We have a new normal”.

COVID-19, Xhakaza said, “has had major health, economic and social effects on every human being from here in Ekurhuleni throughout the rest of the world”.

Not least of all for the man in charge of the city’s coffers, those effects have made themselves felt on the city’s finances.

The impact of the lockdown has resulted in a drastic reduction of revenue collection, an increase in accounts disputes, and requests for new payment arrangements and extensions, among others, said Xhakaza.

In addition, the city anticipates a leap