Cash-strapped consumers will be paying more for electricity from today (Monday) as tariff hikes kick in.
This follows a decision by the National Energy Regulator of South Africa to grant Eskom a 9.41% increase for 2019/2020, 8.10% for 2020/2021 and a further 5.83% for the 2021/2022 financial year.
The increases are in addition to the 4.41% Nersa had already granted Eskom as part of its Regulatory Clearing Account grant.
Mense has slammed the tariff hikes which come on the back of crippling load shedding earlier this month.
Speaking to Weekend Argus, Masizole Simelani, 45, from the Ramaphosa informal settlement in Philippi said they have no other option but to go with illegal connections.
“We don’t have electricity here so we have no option but to use the illegal connections. We pay R200 for the connection every month,” he said.
“There was a big fight earlier this year because our supplier wanted to increase this amount to R250 and we said no because this amount is already too steep.
“But we are dependent on these people who threaten to cut us off and we have nowhere else to turn.”
Eskom says it is losing millions of rands in revenue due to illegal connections, with no sign of the situation being remedied.
On Friday, Eskom spokesperson Khulu Phasiwe reported its technicians were pelted with stones in Garankuwa, Pretoria while inspecting electricity meters and removing illegal connections and had to suspend operations.
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