“Tariff increase scares false” – metro
“As a matter of fact, yesterday’s council sitting unanimously agreed and went on to approve the 2019/20 electricity tariffs.”
The metro has refuted what it terms as “false tariff information” that has been circulated in the media space which suggests that residents would be hard hit by the latest services tariff increases.
This after Afriforum urged Tshwane residents to sign a petition against “excessive” municipal electricity tariff increases.
The organisation’s Jaco Grobbelaar also pleaded with the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) to reject the proposed increases.
“These tariff increases include an electricity increase of 12% and basic tariff charge of R56, R120 or R200 payable before any electricity is even consumed,” said Grobbelaar.
He said this meant it was possible for someone using prepaid electricity to effectively get “nothing” if they purchased an electricity voucher for these amounts.
“We will also consult with our legal team on ways to have the increases put aside, should they be approved.”
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Utility services MMC Abel Tau, however, said the current administration is confident that all political formations are on board with the proposed tariffs.
“The ongoing baseless and fallacious sentiment by some groups are rebuffed.
“As a matter of fact, yesterday’s council sitting unanimously agreed and went on to approve the 2019/20 electricity tariffs,” argued Tau.
The metro applied for the approval of the electricity tariffs by Nersa on 21 June 2019.
“Furthermore, the public is informed that the submitted tariffs were done in accordance with Nersa’s applicable municipal guidelines that were issued on 27 May 2019 and which is the procedure to be followed whenever any municipality has to process electricity tariffs in South Africa,” said Tau.
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He said the application to Nersa included a request for the agricultural fixed tariffs to be brought in line with the domestic tariff.
The average tariff increase was 13.07%.
The domestic, commercial and industrial tariffs for the 2019/20 financial year were based on the Nersa-approved guidelines.
Tau said the abovementioned council-approved tariffs would now await the final sanctioning by Nersa, whose feedback is expected in few days.
According to Tau, “the disinformation about tariff increase has been noted; however, we are not going to concern ourselves about what the objective is”.
ALSO READ: AfriForum mobilises to block ‘excessive’ Tshwane power tariffs
“Our focus is on our accomplishment, which is [that] the presented charges are pro-poor and mindful of the difficult times that our residents are experiencing,” he said.
The new tariffs will come into effect on 1 July.
Grobbelaar said the metro had included in its integrated development plan (IDP) a basic tariff of R56 applicable to all consumers.
He said that in addition to the basic tariff of R200 that was announced in the Government Gazette of 19 June 2019, Afriforum became aware of another basic tariff increase of R120.
He said Nersa had proposed an increase of 13.8% for municipalities and the Tshwane metro increase was “considerably more than the 13.8%”.
“Afriforum believes the metro has found a way via a devious manner to have consumers pay much more than the allowed 13.8%,” said Grobbelaar.
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