{"id":876953,"date":"2026-09-25T11:30:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-25T09:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/?p=876953"},"modified":"2026-09-25T11:17:58","modified_gmt":"2026-09-25T09:17:58","slug":"eskom-says-south-africans-can-forget-electricity-price-cuts-after-r30-billion-profit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/energy\/876953\/eskom-says-south-africans-can-forget-electricity-price-cuts-after-r30-billion-profit\/","title":{"rendered":"Eskom says South Africans can forget electricity price cuts after R30 billion profit"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Eskom chair Mteto Nyati says the company won’t be “paying dividends” from its bumper profits, opting instead to invest in its growth and future relevance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Responding to questions about whether Eskom will cut prices for customers after the group reported R30 billion in profit, Nyati said this was not on the cards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He said that the national power utility has instead chosen to invest its profits in expanding its operations\u2014particularly in renewables\u2014and through that, hopefully drive down prices over the longer term.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We need to have an Eskom that is profitable, and that should be something that we all celebrate,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“And when you have an organisation that is able to deliver profits, you can do one of two things: you can retain that income to do things that will help you to grow in the future, or you can declare a dividend if you have no plans for what to do with the money.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Eskom’s case, Nyati said the utility has big ambitions to participate in renewables, deliver energy, and invest in ways that support the growth of data centres.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“All of that requires money. We have decided not to declare a dividend; we are going to put the money to good use\u2026so that we never go back to the situation we had a few years ago,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nyati said that Eskom needs to remain relevant in the energy market, which means having a clear strategy for renewables. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, doing this requires significant investment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We want to make sure there is local beneficiation, which requires investment in transmission lines and interconnectors that will help us,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“So the profits we have been able to get are actually securing our future. In the medium to long term, they are helping us to drive down the cost of electricity.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nyati said that as Eskom moves into renewables and gains scale, the group will then be able to take its costs and spread them across a larger number of clients.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“So the investment we are making in the medium to long term is going to be driving down the cost of electricity. That is what we have chosen to do.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Revenue up, but sales are down<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

While Eskom achieved roughly R30.35 billion in profit for the 2026 financial year, the headline figure hides troubling numbers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most notably, a 4% rise in revenue and a 116% jump in profits came despite lower sales, suggesting that fewer customers were paying more, creating inverse trends in sales and revenue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eskom itself acknowledged that this was not sustainable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In its financial report, Eskom flagged the rise of self-generation (solar) and wheeling activity as a threat to its future cash flows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To combat this, it explicitly stated that it would lean on network charges, customer wheeling and revised tariff structures to secure revenue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This means that those who are turning away from Eskom but remain connected to its grid face higher fees and tariffs as the group tries to protect its revenue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And while Eskom reiterated its commitment to ending double-digit price hikes, it does not mean tariffs are coming down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The group is still factoring in future price hikes that are at least double the South African Reserve Bank\u2019s inflation target of 3%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In an assessment of the group\u2019s cash-generating unit (CGU), the group noted that the CGU\u2019s recoverable amount may be lower than its carrying amount if the long-term price path after 2028 is limited to inflationary increases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because of this, the current path in its forecast sees price increases averaging 6% from 2029 through to 2050.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the group noted that the long-term price path remains a \u201csignificant source of estimation uncertainty.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is considering future tariff increases, RCA decisions, the ability to liquidate in the future, revenue recovery mechanisms, and the extent to which tariffs become cost-reflective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These are also subject to regulatory approval and future market developments, it said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eskom’s R30 billion profit isn’t going back to customers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":876976,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"posted","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"2103416985044353333","_sma_facebook_post_id":"191437357620492_2216056955881370","_sma_instagram_post_id":"17996878926010447","_sma_x_attempts":1,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9874],"tags":[1164],"class_list":["post-876953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-energy","tag-eskom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/876953","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=876953"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/876953\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":876977,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/876953\/revisions\/876977"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/876976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=876953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=876953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=876953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}