WATCH | ANC presses government for urgent relief on rising electricity costs

The ANC has called on government to do more to shield South Africans from rising electricity costs, warning that households are already under severe financial pressure from the cost of living.

ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula said the party’s National Working Committee wanted government to urgently consider measures to ease the burden on consumers, including ensuring that ordinary South Africans have a stronger voice when electricity price increases are considered.

Mbalula said the ANC’s national leadership had acknowledged that “times are hard” for families dealing with the rising cost of electricity, food and transport.

“The ANC does not watch this from a distance. We are of the people, and we carry your worries as our own,” he said.

The call comes as the ANC seeks to demonstrate that it is responding to the economic pressures facing households, while government grapples with demands for greater relief for consumers.

Mbalula said the ANC secretary-general’s office would investigate whether the governing party could consistently make submissions to the National Energy Regulator of SA (Nersa) when electricity tariff increases are proposed.

The move, he said, would be aimed at ensuring that “the voice of the ordinary consumer is heard” in the regulatory process.

The ANC also renewed its call for finance minister Enoch Godongwana and the ministers responsible for minerals and energy to consider reducing the fuel levy, arguing that fuel costs feed directly into the price of goods and services.

Mbalula said the upcoming medium-term budget should “meet the people halfway” on the cost of living.

The ANC’s intervention comes against a backdrop of growing public frustration over municipal electricity bills and the affordability of basic services, despite the country having gone more than a year without loadshedding.

Mbalula said the end of loadshedding should not be treated as a reason for the ANC to “boast”, but as evidence that the government can turn around failing systems when there is sufficient focus and political will.

“We say it to give the nation confidence that the same seriousness is now turned on water and on your municipality,” he said.

Mbalula also delivered a robust defence of broad-based black economic empowerment (BEE), accusing unnamed forces of mounting an “orchestrated effort” to stall the ANC’s transformation and redress policies.

He said the ANC viewed attacks on BEE as an attack on its efforts to build a more inclusive economy.

“Let us be clear, broad-based black economic empowerment will survive the attacks and the slander,” Mbalula said.

“It is not a cost, it is an investment in stability and social peace.”

His comments come amid renewed political and business debate over transformation policies, including the extent to which BEE should influence ownership, procurement and access to economic opportunities.

Mbalula argued that South Africa’s extreme inequality made economic transformation an urgent necessity rather than an ideological choice.

He cited inequality figures showing that the richest 10% control roughly 86% of the country’s wealth.

“An economy owned by so few is not only unjust, it is unstable, the root of our poverty and unemployment,” he said.

Mbalula said transformation should also translate into employment and economic opportunity, rather than focusing only on ownership.

The ANC, he said, remained committed to beneficiation of the country’s minerals, protecting workers as artificial intelligence reshapes workplaces and establishing a permanent income floor through a basic income support system to replace the social relief of distress grant.

“No newspaper column or cleverly constructed research paper will shame our people out of a lawful demand,” Mbalula said.

“From Cape Town to Musina, this economy is yours too.”

Cost of living becomes political pressure point

Mbalula also pointed to global instability, particularly conflict around Iran and the Gulf, as a factor putting pressure on the South African economy through oil and fertiliser prices.

He said higher oil prices inevitably affected fuel, transport, food production and the wider cost of goods.

The ANC called for calm in the Strait of Hormuz and the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, while backing efforts aimed at securing peace and a ceasefire.

But Mbalula said international developments could not become an excuse for the government to ignore the immediate financial pressures on South African households.

“The state can do more to cushion our people directly,” he said.

The ANC also raised concerns about the possibility of an El Niño-related drought and called on the government to make its plans for food security, water and disaster preparedness public ahead of time.

Mbalula said fixing local government remained a priority for the governing party, with interventions focused on water, electricity, refuse collection and roads.

He said municipalities had shown signs of improvement in the latest auditor-general outcomes, including an increase in clean audits.

But Mbalula acknowledged that these were “not yet victories to be celebrated”, arguing that the improvements showed that competent administration and discipline could turn struggling municipalities around.

The ANC’s latest position comes as the governing party attempts to rebuild its credibility with voters ahead of the electoral cycle, with the cost of living, service delivery and economic transformation likely to remain central battlegrounds.

Mbalula said the ANC wanted South Africans to see a party that was “listening, changing and doing the hard, careful work of fixing what is broken”.

“In the open, within the law, and with the people,” he said.

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