Electricity hike too high for residents, but not enough to save Eskom

Covid has had an extreme effect on income poverty across the country and many consumers can’t keep up with the recent double blow of electricity and petrol price hikes.

Johannesburg residents faced steeply increased costs of both water and lights last month. City Power increased residential prepaid tariffs by 14.59%.

According to energy expert Clyde Mallinson, many households might not be able to afford electricity at all in 2035, if the yearly increases continued at this rate.

“The bottom line is that, as a percentage of household income, as of July, I don’t think people can continue to buy electricity, quite frankly.

“That means many people will either have to work around it or stop paying their bills altogether,” he said.

Bheki Songesi, who is a security guard in Braamfontein, said he had to sleep in his car for the past month because he could not afford petrol and electricity had become a problem, too.

“We usually survive the month with R500 worth of electricity. But in just two weeks R500 has given us 200 units,” he said.

“For July, our electricity bill ran up to R994.70, in a household of four. I can only imagine what other people are going through.”

Some residents said electricity had become a privilege when it should be a basic right and should be affordable because it was a necessity of life.

Songesi said he was concerned how the above-inflation hike came into effect during a pandemic, while many South Africans have not had a salary adjustment since last year.

Another consumer, Qhawe Zulu, said he had recently lost his job and had to sell his car when he heard that, after the electricity price increase, there would be a petrol increase.

“I just sold my car a week ago and I’ve moved my family to Alexandra. I know a lot of people wonder why residents in places like Alexandra and Soweto don’t pay electricity, but now it’s just unbearable,” Zulu said.

Mallinson also said that while the hike was too high for most residents, it was still not enough to save Eskom.

According to Statistics South Africa, the unemployment rate reached a new record high of 32.6% in the first quarter of this year.

– reitumetsem@citizen.co.za