The National Energy Regularly of South Africa (NERSA) granted Eskom a 9.61% electricity tariff hike, on Thursday. This comes after the North Gauteng High Court ordered NERSA to settle tariffs by February after public consultation with provinces.
Despite the Democratic Alliance’s petition opposing Eskom’s tariff hike NERSA has granted the power utility a 9.61% increase allowance.
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The DA drafted a petition opposing the application put forth by Eskom to raise its tariff by 20.5%. The petition gained 30 000 signatures in 5 days.
The DA’s reasoning for the rejection of Eskom’s electricity tariff hike is based on the rising cost of living in the country.
According to the DA’s MP and shadow minister of mineral resources and energy, Kevin Mileham, the cost of food, accommodation, and transport keep rising; and an electricity tariff hike will only add to financial distress faced by the poor.
Mileham said the feedback from the petition shows that Eskom’s application is callous. He said that the power utility can barely keep the lights on yet expects South Africans to pay more money for an unreliable service, which he regards as completely out of touch.
Nhlanhla Gumede – Regulator member of the electricity regulation at NERSA said: “we managed to continue the increase to below inflation, in terms of the new application the actual increase approved is 3.49% which is way below inflation and was done to balance the interests of Eskom with those of the economy and stakeholders.
The decision of the regulator is less than 10%, it is a single digit, this again was done as a balancing act of each stakeholder and utility”, he said.
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He also stated that they had to add all previously approved increases by NERSA, which brought the increase to the approved percentage of 9.6%.
The increase is set to take effect from 1 April this year.
