JOHANNESBURG - South Africans will have to dig deeper into their pockets to keep the lights on.
Municipalities across the country are increasing their electricity tariffs following the approval of Eskom’s tariff restructuring plan by the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA).
NERSA has approved 176 municipal and local authority tariff applications for the 2026/27 financial year, resulting in higher electricity costs for many households.
READ: City Power consumers face 8.63% electricity hike as new tariffs kick in
Luke Sinwell from the University of Johannesburg’s Department of Sociology said electricity costs are placing an unsustainable burden on working-class households.
"There’s no way this is sustainable from the perspective of the consumer to keep on having the cost of electricity, which everyone requires," he said.
"But one of the key things to keep in mind is that although we’ve basically gotten rid of load-shedding due to an increase of power output, the fact is that the working class are still experiencing loadshedding in the form of load reduction, which is a targeting of working-class communities.
Sinwell said municipal customers are now beginning to feel the impact of the increases.
"This price change is slightly different from the Eskom direct customers, who already saw their increase take effect on 1 April.
"Consumers who receive their electricity through municipalities, such as City Power, will now face similar increases from 1 July, meaning they’ll start feeling the impact in their monthly bills," he said.
Sinwell said the exact increase depends on where consumers live and how their municipality structures its electricity tariffs.
“It depends on where you live and who supplies your electricity. Every municipality has its own tariff structure.
"In some cases, there are subsidies, while in others, higher charges are linked to infrastructure costs or the expense of providing electricity to certain areas.”