The Minister of Energy and Electricity, Dr Kgosientsho Ramokgopa, has assured South Africans that the department, in collaboration with the South African Local Government Association (Salga) and local municipalities, is dedicated to finding a lasting solution to the increasing cost of electricity.

“There’s been an exponential rise in the cost of electricity,” said Ramokgopa. “Our electricity pricing plan needs to kick in and that’s the primary preoccupation of the work of the ministry now working with Eskom; working with municipalities and working with Salga.”

The minister was addressing a media briefing on Monday morning, and discussed various municipal initiatives that communities did not receive well. Ramokgopa also mentioned that discussions with Salga had already commenced during the sixth administration.

“There’s an appreciation that we need to pull together. This situation is untenable. Communities are getting more and more enraged [and] people just can’t afford the cost of electricity.

“As the ministry, together with the deputy minister, we have taken a view that we will not fold our arms although that domain is the exclusive purview of local authorities. Municipalities rightfully say that it’s their domain but we are agreed with Salga that we are going to resolve this problem domestically,” he said.

Ramokgopa added that the role of the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) is indispensable in finding solutions.

“As an independent authority, they must protect the consumer, they must interrogate the proposed tariff increases from Eskom and also from municipalities. So what we’re going to do is not to pressure Nersa, but to work with Nersa.

“We are going to insist on a Nersa framework that takes care of the interests of the poor and the marginalised so that we don’t deny them access to electricity.

“We will work with the municipalities. We know what you are going through and we intend to resolve this question,” he concluded.

Watch the briefing here: