By Wendy Jasson da Costa
Homes and businesses using more than their quota of electricity are soon to be penalised.
The government calls it a "differentiated tariff structure", which means that once you use more than a certain amount of power, the rate at which you are charged automatically increases.
The announcement by government spokesperson Themba Maseko followed a Cabinet meeting in Cape Town on Wednesday at which the country's power crisis was discussed.
President Thabo Mbeki is expected to comment on the power crisis in his State of the Nation speech on Friday.
Maseko said the proposed tariff increase was included in new regulations drafted by the department of minerals and energy.
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The Cabinet believed that while the country had the capacity to generate electricity, achieving the required reserve margin of between 8 percent and 10 percent was a challenge, making load-shedding necessary.
Maseko repeated the government's appeal to businesses and individual households to support the electricity-saving campaign by reducing consumption by 10 percent.
It would also intensify its interaction with major stakeholders to ensure they took part in the national effort to reduce electricity demand.
The Cabinet thanked everyone, especially mines, for their co-operation in helping to manage the "national emergency".
The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) warned, however, that the economic effects of the electricity crisis could deepen if the government and Eskom failed to ensure the promise was kept that mines would get 90 percent of their electricity supply.
NUM spokesperson Lesiba Seshoka said the power supply to the mines had been fluctuating between 80 percent and 90 percent this week, making it difficult for them to plan.
This had also affected safety, productivity and job security, while mining equipment had been damaged and thousands of jobs were on the line.
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