You will be paying more for electricity you do not have from April 1 after the energy regulator granted embattled power utility Eskom a staggering 18.65% tariff increase yesterday, much to the dismay of hard-pressed consumers.
National Energy Regulator of SA (Nersa) announced it had reached a decision to grant Eskom an 18.65% increase for its 2023/2024 financial year. Eskom was also granted a 12.74% increase for the 2024/2025 financial year. This year’s increase, according to energy expert Ted Blom, will cost an additional R200 to R400 a month on electricity bills depending on where you live.
Eskom-supplied customers will be the first to feel the pinch on April 1, while municipal supplied users will wait until councils approve their tariff increases.
The cash-strapped power utility, which ramped-up load-shedding to stage 6 this week, had applied to the regulator for a 32% increase last year.
The regulator said its decision sought to balance the needs of Eskom and consumers.
The increase in electricity prices is likely to add salt to the wound of consumers who have been hit by increases in fuel prices, food inflation, interest rate hikes and high levels of unemployment.
Last year, the regulator approved a 9.61% increase for Eskom at the time when the country was faced with low economic growth as it was coming out of the Covid-19 pandemic.
SA Federation of Trade Unions general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi said the increase was disastrous for workers.
“We are being pounded to death here. There are also escalating food prices and petrol prices that are still above R23 a litre. We cannot cope. Eskom’s increases since 2007 have been more than 500%. What have we got from that? More load-shedding. If there was a direct link between 18% and the miracle that we get out of load-shedding and we get our lives back, I will say maybe we need to take this on the chin. This is no guarantee that we will have electricity back. It is an assault on living standards.
“People must now choose — do you keep your house in order to pay electricity, do you let go of your car, do you go from having two meals a day to one meal a day to survive,” said Vavi.
Cosatu national spokesperson Sizwe Pamla said the tariff increase was unacceptable.
“If you look at the cost of living and inflation, the supply of electricity is unreliable. It is unacceptable for the increase to be granted. Eskom has not given us any guarantee of reliable power supply. They collect money without providing services.
“Stagnant wages of the employed and social grants are not keeping up with costs of living. This means that many families will be left with a choice of whether to buy food or electricity,” he said.
ActionSA leader Herman Mashaba said: “A feasible solution has to be pursued because the South African ratepayer cannot continue to pay for historical and persistent mismanagement of our power utility. We have now been besieged by load-shedding for 14 years with the situation getting progressively worse as we are forced to live with de facto semi-permanent rolling blackouts. The current situation is untenable.”
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