Cape Town – Minister of Electricity and Energy Kgosientsho Ramokgopa has assured South Africans that there will not be a 36% electricity tariff increase.
Speaking at the ANC NEC lekgotla in Boksburg on Sunday, Ramokgopa emphasised the need to review the country’s energy mix to reduce electricity production costs.
He acknowledged concerns from business leaders at the World Economic Forum (WEF) about the high cost of electricity, which affects competitiveness.
“Electricity is expensive for an average person, very expensive for business. It makes their products uncompetitive. So, we are trying to design a way of ensuring that electricity, going into the future, is affordable. The exponential tariff increases that we are seeing cannot be sustained.
“The application of 36% tariff increase won’t see the light of day. I am confident that we will not see those proportions of increases. I am confident that the work we have done, submissions made to NERSA, will suggest that the electricity increases will be significantly lower than that,” the minister said, according to SABC News.
Ramokgopa also highlighted South Africa’s milestone of marking 300 days without load shedding but acknowledged that load reduction remains a significant challenge, leaving many communities without power for extended periods.
Load reduction, a measure implemented to manage demand and stabilise the grid, has led to widespread frustration, with some citizens experiencing outages lasting up to 10 hours per week.
“In theory, we have not achieved universal access in the 30 years of democracy, although we have made significant advances. So those are the interventions we’re making.
“The next frontier is to apply the same level of effort that resolved load shedding to load reduction. That’s the message to households—resolving load reduction is our top priority,” IOL quoted the minister as saying.
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Compiled by Betha Madhomu
