The electricity cost policy by the Cape Town City Council hurts the poor and favours the rich 

3 August 2017

The City of Cape Town is implementing inequitable and discriminatory electricity cost policy. The City encourages densification of poor areas and then punishes the communities who have more than one household on the property. The City because of the higher use due to more than one family per plot then unfairly prejudices the poorer communities. This is the old way of dealing with cost in the City, where the poor carry a heavier burden.

The City is also charging poor people a lot more than any other sector of the country for similar services. This is clearly unfair and shows that the City does not work for everyone, but works better for the wealthy, who live in Pinelands with the Mayor. The table below shows to what extent the cost of electricity has increased in poorer communities, which exceeds the increases that the City claimed were going to be effected.

The City has also exceeded the Nersa authorised increases and this is clearly a violation. Cosatu demands that the City restore the old rates applicable in June 2017 before the increases and that a proper process of consultation be followed. This consultation must examine the effect on the communities and the unfairness of the cost increases and inequities in relation to the poorer communities.

This increase has had a devastating effect on the households earning lower incomes. This is especially hard in this period of tight economic times and high unemployment.

Issued by Tony Ehrenreich, Western Cape Provincial Secretary, COSATU, 3 August 2017