The public has been outraged since Eskom announced it had approached the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) for an electricity tariff hike this coming March. Eskom took Nersa to court for declining its suggested double tariff increase – instead Nersa increased the tariff to only 8%.
Recently, Eskom announced that if it does not instate a tariff increase of 17% by March, the electricity grid will collapse.
“Genuinely, it is a national crisis… there is a very real risk that if we have to wait until the start of 2021/2022 financial year, the country may have collapsed by then,” said Matthew Chaskalson, an Eskom legal representative, during an interview with CapeTalk.
“Nersa didn’t follow the regulations… that is what we are trying to share to the public… Nersa did not apply its own methodology,”
Eskom managed to secure a 9.41% tariff increase for the 2019/2020 financial year, and Nersa agreed to allow the power utility to increase their tariffs by a further 8% in 2020. Eskom also wanted to hike electricity prices up even further for 2021, and is looking to secure an increase of a whopping 45% in the next three years. Instead, Nersa agreed on a 22.3% hike and this prompted Eskom to take legal action – hence, they will be battling it out in court.
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