Strength in Numbers: KDM Respond to Historic Imbizo Turnout

‘25/’26 Budget Highlights and Lowlights

The imbizo at the end of April, for the Dolphin Coast, was an unprecedented show of solidarity with over 600 residents turning up to make their voices heard.  And those voices did not fall on deaf ears…the event sparked widespread media coverage and debate and led to several budget concessions with both fiscal and practical implications.  The biggest win is that the overall increase to ratepayers has been reduced from 9.33% to 6.67%.

The final KDM ‘25/’26 Budget was narrowly passed in the Council meeting held on Thursday, 29 May 2025 despite strong opposition from multiple political parties.  Opponents condemned the bloated security allocations, lack of capital expenditure, and higher-than-CPI increases. 

The final outcome versus the draft budget proposal is as follows:

• The rates will not increase, as suggested by DOCRRA for the past 3 years, to keep the Dolphin Coast an attractive investment destination and competitive on a national level.
• The rates rebate has increased from a 18% proposed in the draft budget to 20%*. This is 5% less than the previous year’s rebate of 25%.  Homeowners will be paying an increase of approximately 6.67% vs. 9.33%.
• Tariffs for refuse collection and electricity remain the same, at 7.3% and 10.7% respectively.
• *Pensioner rebates will remain the same as last year, at 25%.

Although the budget is balanced, its success will hinge heavily upon KDM’s ability to implement effective revenue loss mitigation strategies, which DOCRRA will be monitoring closely and lobbying for as much oversight on as possible. Most of this revenue loss sits in electricity sales, which we raised with NERSA, who are in the middle of their audit of KDM and whom we expect to make recommendations in this regard. 

Other interventions are currently underway, including a revenue protection unit under the office of the Municipal Manager and audit of large power users.  This is certainly the elephant in the room, and failure to deliver on these plans and interventions must be met with real performance and consequence management. 

Despite this dark cloud, other efforts to restore effective communication were met with enthusiasm by Deputy Mayor Cele at the Imbizo, such as the reinstatement of a quarterly KORA meeting, with an agenda to be determined by DOCRRA.  The mayor has referred this to the office of the Municipal Manager for scheduling. Our other requests for ‘end user’ type forums where we can interface with critical business units are also being considered, and we will follow up on those items. 

Want to find out more about how we’re holding KDM to account? 

Join us for our annual Community Conversations and AGM event on Wednesday, 18 June 2025, at Salt Rock Country Club, and hear from our electricity and environmental subcommittees as well as a special presentation guest speaker, Warwick Chapman.

Want to support more work like this?  Join DOCRRA today.

Want regular DOCRRA updates?

Join our WhatsApp group and follow us on social media.

Join our WhatsApp Channel.

Stand in solidarity with thousands of other like-minded residents.