- The Democratic Alliance (DA) wants to take the fight against planned double-digit price hikes to parliament over the next two years.
- Nersa announced on August 2 that Eskom would be allowed to recover over R8 billion through the RCA from the 2021/22 financial year.
The party spokesperson on Electricity and Energy, Kevin Mileham, said he has written to the Speaker of the National Assembly, Thoko Didiza, requesting that Parliament debate Eskom’s electricity pricing.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) says it wants to take the fight against planned double-digit price hikes over the next two years to parliament and open a national debate on the rising cost of electricity in South Africa.
Citing a leaked document on Eskom’s planned tariff hikes for 2025, 2026 and 2027, Mileham said that electricity pricing is becoming unaffordable and has reached crisis levels.
The leaked documents, seen and reported on by Daily Maverick, showed that Eskom would be seeking massive tariff hikes over the next three financial years: 2025/2026:36.15 per cent, 2026/2027: 11.81 per cent, and 2027/2028: 9.1 per cent
These tariffs would reportedly apply to Eskom direct customers, with customers powered by local municipalities facing even higher rate hikes.
These increases do not include the additional amounts that energy regulator Nersa will allow the utility to ‘claw back’ from the Regulatory Clearing Account (RCA).
Nersa announced on 2 August that Eskom would be allowed to recover over R8 billion through the RCA from the 2021/22 financial year.
Mileham said this would translate to a 4 per cent tariff hike on top of the possible 36.15 per cent application for 2025.
Mileham said continued double-digit price hikes “will effectively price many households out of the electricity market and increase energy poverty to levels not seen since the dawn of democracy.”
Minister of Energy and Electricity Kgosientsho Ramokgopa said last week that the department and the South African Local Government Association (SALGA) are looking at ways to implement an electricity pricing plan in collaboration with Eskom and local municipalities.
Mileham said this is a positive development but urged the government to move quickly.
“The Eskom monopoly has become inefficient, and the cost of that inefficiency is now being passed on to consumers. It does not help that the current electricity pricing policy is more biased towards setting tariffs that reward Eskom’s inefficiency while failing to balance this with consumer affordability,” he said.