Discovery Health and Nersa shift the cost of their failures to consumers, leaving households to cover billions in errors.
There is an interesting business term – E&OE – which is frequently included on invoices, quotes and price lists. It stands for “errors and omissions excepted” which, in lay terms, means: if we mess up and make a mistake, you can’t hold us to anything.
Although the term is not being explicitly used by two major organisations – a company, Discovery, and a supposed societal watchdog, the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) – the principle is the same.
And that is: we got things wrong, badly wrong… but you, the consumer, are going to end up paying.
It may not be the consumer’s fault, but the consumer will be punished.
This week, Discovery Health sent a terrifying communication to some of its members informing them that they will have to pay back money because the company erred in paying some of their claims.
Some members have received notice that they owe amounts up to R45 000 for Discovery’s failures.
And then comes Nersa, which claims to be giving electricity users time to respond to its proposal that consumers pay an additional R76 billion in electricity tariffs to compensate Eskom for mistakes the regulator made.
The amount is about 40% higher than the R54 billion settlement Nersa reached with Eskom behind closed doors in July, which the High Court in Pretoria refused to confirm after an intervention by AfriForum and the Minerals Council SA.
It ordered Nersa on 21 December to reconsider the matter after giving stakeholders an opportunity to make submissions on it.
The deadline for submissions is 21 January and the regulator will make its final decision by 30 January. Whatever Nersa decides on will be recovered from tariffs.
Which means we will pay extra.
Nersa execs will probably still get their bonuses, as will the head honchos at Eskom, even as it bleeds billions. What’s new?
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