Swartland Municipality has joined the call to the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) to reject Eskom’s application for an electricity price increase of more than 20%.
It submitted a letter of objection to Nersa on Friday 14 January.
The municipality is of opinion that the proposed increase will be detrimental to an “already struggling economy”.
“Every year our residents must pay the price for years of poor management at the national energy provider,” says Executive Mayor, Alderman Herold Cleophas.
“Affordable electricity is essential for developing and maintaining a strong, job-driven economy. Eskom’s proposed increases of 20,5%, 15,07% and 10% for the next three years will eliminate all hope of growing our economy and will instead push us into a recession that will be more devastating than the lockdown of the past two years.”
He said irrespective of the merit of Eskom’s application, “it cannot be denied that the predicament the energy provider finds itself in is of its own making.
“Irrecoverable debt, poor maintenance, inflated personnel, corruption and the disastrous technical defects at, what is supposed to be, our brand-new power stations have left South Africans reeling from inflation and continuously increasing living costs in every aspect of our daily lives, all tied directly or indirectly to Eskom’s failure to keep the lights on despite crippling electricity prices.”
Cleophas says the municipality is of the opinion the maximum tolerable increase for electricity tariffs for municipalities should not exceed 6%.
He says this should be inclusive of all claw-back amounts due to Eskom and the shortfall to maintain Eskom’s financial viability in the short term should be financed by the National Treasury.
“As a local government we cannot in good conscious support Eskom’s request, and on behalf of our residents we implore the decision makers to consider carefully the impact their decisions will have on our residents as we move forward.”
