Massive electricity price hike on the cards for Tshwane – as power issues persist
The City of Tshwane is proposing a massive electricity price hike for residents this year, even as it struggles to keep power supplied to residents and businesses.
The city has tabled its proposed budget for public comment this week, recommending an electricity price hike of 18% from 1 July.
Water is expected to rise by 9.2%, while refuse removal fees are proposed at 6% higher.
The proposed electricity price hike comes in lower than the municipal tariff hike granted by energy regulator Nersa, which was approved at 18.45%, and is also lower than the increase Eskom direct customers were hit with at the start of April (18.65%).
South Africans at large can expect massive increases to their utility bills from 1 July. Residents in eThekwini are set to be hit with electricity price hikes of 21.9%, while Cape Town residents will see hikes slightly lower at 17.6%.
Tshwane residents, however, will be more aggrieved by the proposed hikes, as the city has suffered continuous infrastructure issues leading to extended power outages not related to load shedding.
Parts of region 4 of the city (including Louwlardia, Lyttelton, and Kloofsig in Centurion) have experienced flare-ups of power outages in recent weeks. Meanwhile large parts of the city were left in the dark for extended periods following the collapse of seven pylons in early April.
Despite the core issue being resolved, Tshwane mayor Cellier Brink said that grid instability as a result of the pylon crash was causing many of the issues, leading to trips, crashes and faults on the network.
In addition to this, he noted that stage 6 load shedding had caused even more problems, with the infrastructure unable to handle the extreme outages and damaging equipment. He said that city is working to resolve the issues.
Worse to come
The frequency and extent of the damage of Tshwane’s infrastructure in the context of stage 6 load shedding, in particular, is a storied tale – and echoes messages from other major metros like the City of Joburg, whenever high levels of outages hit.
The damage extends from the power infrastructure to other critical services like water supply. Outages also provide opportune times for criminals and vandals to cause further chaos.
Worryingly, this situation is playing out before the winter months, when power demand is expected to increase, and energy experts and analysts have warned that load shedding will be worse.
Analysis of the ongoing power crisis shows that blackout hours being experienced by South Africans is increasing.
The average South African has so far experienced over 27 days (655 hours) of total darkness in 2023 so far. This is compared to the average of 34 days (830 hours) experienced in the whole of 2022.
The country has also experienced some form of load shedding for all but one day of the year so far – 108 days – and has been in a near-permanent state of load shedding since September 2022.
The South African Reserve Bank anticipates 250 days of load shedding this year, up from 207 days experienced last year.
Read: From bad to worse: Load shedding vs blackout hours in South Africa
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