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No Prizes for Guessing Who Wants Another R24 Billion

Dear Editor

As the DA prepares to contest NERSA’s decision to award Eskom a 31,4% tariff increase over two years, at the North Gauteng High Court on 11 September, it has since emerged that Eskom has submitted a new application to extract an additional R24 billion from overburdened consumers.

The DA finds this stealth cost recovery application by Eskom outrageous and completely tone deaf to the difficulties being faced by consumers in a high inflationary environment. With the court’s permission, we will add this latest Eskom application as part of evidence to motivate why NERSA’s January 2023 electricity tariff increase decision must be reviewed and set aside.

Eskom is reported to have submitted a regulatory clearing account application (RCA) to NERSA in April in which it is seeking to recoup R24 billion in historical cost and revenue variances for the 2021/22 financial year. If NERSA approves this application, it will likely be added on top of future electricity tariff increases.

The ramifications of NERSA’s 31,4% tariff increase is already being felt across the country as consumers take to the street to protest the increasingly unaffordable electricity bills. If NERSA goes ahead and approves this clandestine application by Eskom for an additional R24 billion, it will further increase electricity costs beyond the reach of many and price out poor households from accessing electricity.

Consumers should not be expected to fund Eskom inefficiencies through predatory cost recovery measures. The fact that Eskom is on the verge of blowing through their diesel budget should not be used as a basis of passing on the cost to consumers. This is essentially a predatory abuse of Eskom’s monopoly where costs of dysfunction are regularly being passed on to the consumer.

Despite clear evidence that the Eskom monopoly has become a burden on consumers, through a permanent state of loadshedding and high electricity tariffs, the ANC government still insists on preserving that monopoly. This stealth application for more money by Eskom should be rejected outright because consumers will not fund the high maintenance costs of an entity on its death bed.

Regards

Ghaleb Cachalia MP
DA Shadow Minister of Public Enterprises

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