Lights off but tariffs must go up, says Eskom

19 July 2022 

While South Africa is currently suffering from load shedding, Eskom has submitted a tariff application to increase the power tariff by 32,66%. Moreover, Eskom wants consumers who have Solar generating capacity to pay more than ordinary power consumers.

AfriForum has sent a letter to Pres. Cyril Ramaphosa, Gwede Mantashe, the Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy Affairs, and Nomalanga Sithole, the CEO of the National Energy Regulator (Nersa), for steps that can be implemented to bring relief to the power sector.

Nersa should play a key role in bringing relief to citizens and must address any licensee who does not comply with legislation. We do see that this is not the case and the minister should be responsible for the failures of Nersa to keep the energy sector healthy.

“It is Eskom's inability that forces people to look at alternative power generation methods and now the same people might be fined for it. Eskom wants consumers to pay for power that they are not even getting at the moment,” says Jacques Broodryk, AfriForum’s Campaigns Manager.

Broodryk believes that a decentralised network is a solution to the power crisis that South Africans are currently experiencing. If Nersa implements a methodology that regulates the free trade of power between consumers, it could get a lot of generational ability on the network in a short time. “Such a solution would not only increase generating capacity but could possibly cause consumers to buy power cheaper from your neighbour, even if there is some form of compensation payable to the network,” Broodryk concludes.

Issued by Jacques Broodryk, Manager: Campaigns, AfriForum, 19 July 2022