PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa has appealed to the board of South Africa’s cash-strapped power utility to suspend its biggest electricity-price increase in more than a decade as the nation faces two more years of rolling blackouts.
Eskom Holdings won approval by the national energy regulator to raise electricity tariffs by an inflation-beating 18.65% and 12.74% for the next two years on January 12. The first increase is set to take effect in April.
“It will not be fair to impose the tariff on our people while there is load shedding,” he said, using a local term for power cuts.
Ramaphosa’s comments come after Eskom said the country could face two years of persistent blackouts as it overhauls its aging power stations. He spoke in the central Free State province.
The tariff increases are a key input in the National Treasury’s plan to a shift portion of Eskom’s debt of about R400
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