PHALABORWA – Some prepaid electricity users in Phalaborwa were left stunned this month after buying electricity, only to find unfamiliar deductions taken from their purchases.

Screenshots seen by the Herald from two customers who bought electricity via a banking app show the deductions were listed as “utility charges”.

R500 purchase leaves only 22.7kWh

One resident bought a R500 voucher but received only 22.7kWh of units, after R383.20 was deducted for the utility charge.

Another resident bought R238.56 worth of electricity but had R225.66 deducted in charges.

Municipality: Charges backdated to April

One resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity, approached the Ba-Phalaborwa Municipality for answers and was told the charge is a new system implemented by the municipality.

“At the municipality, they told me that the charges should have started in April, but the contractor only began implementation in July. So, when people buy electricity now, the meter automatically backdates the charges from April and deducts accordingly,” he said.

“We are all shocked that there is such a fee; how come we were not informed? At the very least, we want to know how it works. Is this a once-off deduction or a monthly one?”

Municipality confirms basic charges

The Herald contacted municipal spokesperson Jonas Mahesu, who confirmed the charges.

“We are charging basic charges, which were not done before. If you buy R100 of electricity, a once-off monthly payment of R97 is taken, and you remain with R3; that’s the arrangement for the basic charge,” he said.

Eskom investigating

The Herald also forwarded the payment screenshots to Eskom’s provincial communications department, which said it would investigate the fees.

At the time of going to print, Eskom had not yet responded.

What is a utility charge?

According to the website prepaid24.co.za, a utility charge is usually a fixed monthly network or availability charge deducted from the first electricity purchase of the month, before any actual kWh units are bought.

Municipalities and some Eskom-supplied areas increasingly bill this way instead of adding it to a separate account, because prepaid customers do not get monthly statements to bill against.

It is usually described as covering the cost of maintaining the network, meter infrastructure, or “basic availability” of the connection, regardless of how much you use.

This charge must be Nersa-approved.