Municipalities across South Africa will have to increase their electricity tariffs as they now face a 15,63 per cent hike from Eskom.
The National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA) initially granted the power utility an increase of 9,41 per cent, 8,1 per cent and 5,2 per cent over the next three financial years, which is well below Eskom’s application for a 17,1 per cent hike for 2019/ 20, 15,4 per cent for 2020/ 21 and 15,5 per cent for 2021/ 22.
The City of Johannesburg expressed disappointment at NERSA’s hike and argued that it was unacceptable.
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“Despite City Power’s efforts to absorb price increases arising from NERSA’s decision to grant Eskom a tariff hike, this will still result in a 13,07 per cent increase in tariffs for the City of Johannesburg versus the 12,2 per cent which was initially budgeted for by the City, based on the initial tariff increase requested by Eskom,” said Herman Mashaba, the Executive Mayor of Johannesburg.
“The proposed 12,2 per cent increase was presented to residents as part of the proposed budget within our Integrated Development Plan sessions, contingent on the final outcome of deliberations between Eskom and NERSA,” he added, saying that this increase will put pressure on residents and businesses as over 900 000 residents are unemployed and the national economic growth outlook remains depressed.
According to the statement, the City said the hikes are used to disguise maladministration and corruption at the parastatal.“Given this, I will write to the South African Human Rights Commission, calling for an urgent investigation into this matter,” Mashaba concluded.
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