Johannesburg - Cosatu has called on Energy Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson to “do her job” and protect consumers from what it calls exorbitant electricity increases.
This follows National Energy Regulator of SA (Nersa) announcing on Tuesday that Eskom would be granted a 9.4% tariff increase.
“Eskom pleads poverty and demands massive price increases yet it can afford to give R40 million to The New Age for its breakfast shows, to spend R30 million on end of year parties and pay huge bonuses to clearly non-performing executives,” said Cosatu spokesman Sizwe Pamla in a statement.
Read: You will pay 9.4% more for electricity
“What government needs to understand and make clear to Eskom is that consumers cannot be expected to shoulder the whole cost of getting Eskom back on its feet.”
He said the recapitalisation of electricity utility was the responsibility of government through the fiscus. The state had to force Eskom to cut the fat, improve its revenue collection and manage contracts effectively to address its financial problems.
Pamla said the hike served as further proof that the government urgently needed to invest in quick, affordable and safe renewable energy, said Cosatu.
“Cosatu is utterly opposed to the 9,4% tariff increase that Nersa has awarded to Eskom ,and strongly feels that consumers are being forced to carry the burden of Eskom’s inefficiencies.
“Workers and their families have already been slapped with increases in personal income tax last year and the fuel levy this year, and the costs of other basic services like health are also rising,” the statement read.
Pamla warned that the increase would plunge South Africans into more poverty.
Eskom has been increasing electricity prices at two to five times the levels of inflation for more than five years.
Labour Bureau