Consumers could be paying up to 44% more for electricity if Eskom get their way.
If successful with their application, the new electricity tariff hike could be implemented by April 2025.
But civil organisations, business stakeholders and Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill Lewis says such a massive increase would spell disaster for South Africa.
In a letter to the National Energy Regulator of SA (Nersa) on 20 August, Hill-Lewis expressed the City’s strong opposition to the proposed hike.
“This is a mammoth Eskom increase that Nersa must stop in its tracks. It is unthinkable. On behalf of Cape Town households and businesses, especially small businesses, we are calling for the rejection of a 44% electricity tariff hike.
“The economic impact, and also the impact on especially lower income families, will be immense with the cost of living already so high,” Hill-Lewis wrote.
President of the Cape Chamber Jacques Moolman said the request for the hike should be rejected “with the contempt it deserved”.
“A hike of this magnitude is laughable and an insult to small business operators who are either in financial distress or working with miniscule profit margins.
“In many instances electricity is a major input cost, and as some commentators have pointed out the tariff has already increased by around 450% since 2007.”
Moolman noted that while the hike is a tricky equation, weighed on revenue vs livelihood, government should be looking at ways to incentivise small business, not hold them back.
Electricity Tariffs Must Fall founder Natasha Gertse says the proposed tariff hike will cripple consumers.
“Currently we are not even surviving, we are on load shedding even when there is no load shedding. We try to save on electricity costs wherever we can because R50 only gets you 12 units, imagine what a hike like this would mean to the consumer.
“These energy regulators are not looking at the suffering, they are just looking at the revenues.”
Karabelo Pooe, General Manager of The National Association of Social Housing (NASHO), urged government to consider alternatives for the social housing sector.
“We look at people like the elderly, who are Sassa recipients. For example their rental will be R1200, but their electricity cost is already more than half their rental at Social Housing Institutions across, while they still have to think of their necessities, how will they be able to cope with hikes still?”
tracy-lynn.ruiters@inl.co.za