Johannesburg

Joburg Mayor Mpho Phalatse and MMC Michael Sun share worrying sentiments about tariff increase. Photo: Executive Mayor of Joburg – Mpho Phalatse/ Facebook.

City of Johannesburg worried about unaffordable tariff increase

City of Johannesburg believes residents across the City will regrettably be forced to pay for years of political negligence and corruption

Johannesburg

Joburg Mayor Mpho Phalatse and MMC Michael Sun share worrying sentiments about tariff increase. Photo: Executive Mayor of Joburg – Mpho Phalatse/ Facebook.

The Johannesburg Multi-Party Government says it is concerned about the impact that the 18,65% NERSA-approved tariff for Eskom will have on the residents of the City.

CITY OF JOHANNESBURG MULTI-PARTY BLAMES POLITICS

The City of Johannesburg’s Multi-Party Government believes residents across the City will regrettably be forced to pay for years of political negligence and corruption.

“Eskom originally requested a 38.1% tariff increase during the public consultation process, and as the City, we objected based on logical and factual grounds. The objections were necessary, as any increase was going to have a devastating impact on Joburg residents who are already buckling under growing inflation, an ailing economy, high fuel and food prices, and persistent rolling blackouts due to the unreliability of Eskom.”

CoJ statement

MAYOR MPHO PHALATSE WEIGHS IN ON THE ESKOM CRISIS

“Notwithstanding the lower increase, the approved 18,65% tariff increase remains unfair to the residents of Johannesburg who have endured rolling blackouts since 2008, with 2022 deemed the worst year to date, with no end in sight,” Executive Mayor, Councillor Mpho Phalatse said.

MORE CONCERN FROM THE MAYORAL COMMITTEE

MMC for Environment and Infrastructure Services, Councillor Michael Sun said: “Eskom has for the past 6 years consistently received higher than inflation tariff hikes, giving the City little room to protect residents from higher electricity prices. The tariff increase will have far-reaching consequences and will further erode business confidence and disrupt the City’s economic recovery, while negatively impacting on job creation efforts and the City’s revenue base”.

“We believe that instead of always running to NERSA, begging bowl in hand, Eskom should do more to clean house and seek alternative long-and-short interventions to improve its operational efficiencies and reduce costs,” he added.

While the Multi-Party Government says it fully appreciates that Eskom must be financially viable, however, it believes residents cannot be the only channel used to rectify what is a politically-made emergency.

“The tariff hike is unaffordable under the circumstances, and will increase City Power’s bulk purchase cost to about R200 million a month, which, unfortunately, we will be forced to pass through to the consumer, already reeling from high inflation, Job losses and recovering from the impact of Covid,” said Phalatse.

She continued, “with 90% of its energy procured from Eskom, the Multi-Party Government and City Power are actively working to reduce Joburg’s dependence on Eskom and has therefore gone out into the market to search for suitable, reliable and affordable solutions that will eliminate the City’s over-dependence on Eskom. It is worth noting that the 18.65% tariff increase is an average increase for Eskom customers, including municipalities like Joburg.”

Next month, the City of Johannesburg announced it will commence with public consultation processes as part of the 2023/24 budgeting process, “and while we have to cushion our customers from high electricity prices, the pressures from Eskom and the tariff they received from NERSA, makes this a challenge”.