NERSA’s 18.65% tariff increase will push ordinary South Africans further into poverty

13 January 2023

The announcement made by the National Energy Regulation of South Africa (NERSA) to increase electricity by 18.65% is simply unaffordable and will drive millions of South Africans further into poverty. The increase is despite Eskom’s inability to keep the lights on, having recently raised load shedding to Stage 6.

We are currently forced to contend with not having electricity for up to 9 hours a day. The price of electricity has risen by more than 500% in the past 16 years, while Eskom has received billions in bailouts and yet, to date, still fails to keep the lights on. South Africans will be forced to pay an exorbitant amount for electricity they do not get. The increased load shedding stages have an adverse effect on Midvaal Local municipality’s electricity infrastructure and network. It also hinders our ability to attend to power outages which have become a norm due to the surge in energy from the constant load shedding.

The prolonged rolling blackouts implemented by Eskom also give an opportunity for cable theft and vandalism. Page 2 of 3 Ordinary South Africans cannot be expected to carry the cost of Eskom’s failure and incompetence. Midvaal Local Municipality is currently working to become less reliant on Eskom:

1. Council has approved the Embedded Generation Policy (formerly known as the Small-Scale Embedded policy) to allow large energy customers to generate their own energy during commercial hours. To date, we have administered over ten applications and are seeing a huge uptake from other players.

2. The municipality is in the process of introducing a feed-in tariff for solar users to pump energy into our grid. We will set up a control room to allow a safe energy import into our grid at a fair price to our customers.

3. We will engage with Eskom to compile a wheeling agreement for Independent Power Producers to pump energy in Midvaal. This will allow us to have a balanced energy mix extending our options outside our own borders.

4. The municipality is working on making its tariffs more cost[1]reflective. The municipality has already shown efficiency in cutting down electricity loss from 18% to 9%. This will allow Midvaal Local Municipality to individually apply for less increase during tariff increases. This will bring financial relief to our residents.

5. We have instructed that a feasibility study into Renewable Energy project is accelerated, and an item be presented to Council for decision-making.

The Municipal Manager has been instructed to establish a task team to expedite all processes regarding establishing a feasible and viable Renewable Energy project.

Issued by Idah Satikhe, Senior Media Officer, Office of the Executive Mayor, 13 January 2023