Inside Cape Town’s quiet battle to charge extra for electricity
10 April 2024
Since July 2022 the City of Cape Town has accumulated hundreds of millions of Rands in profits from its scheme to force consumers to pay more for electricity than they should according to national regulation.
Cape Town implemented a 9.6% tariff increase for 2022/2023 (compared to the 7.47% increase approved by the regulator, NERSA) and for 2023/2024 it implemented a 17.6% hike compared to the approved 15.1%.
For the past two years the City has been quietly litigating, at ratepayers’ expense, against NERSA for court permission to ignore the nationally regulated tariff. In other words, consumers are funding the City’s case to be able to charge them extra!
The amount of money that the City is over-charging residents amounts to hundreds of millions of Rands. Defending itself in a rare statement on the subject last year, the City suggested that complying with NERSA’s tariff for 2023/2024 would create a R500m shortfall.