Cape Town - Cape Town lobby groups are calling for an urgent public hearing to be held by the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) over the City’s pre-paid meter electricity charge, which went up this month.
Lobby group DearSA is working closely with STOP COCT to try to get Nersa to hold another round of public hearings on the tariff hikes.
STOP COCT founder Sandra Dickson said: “During the past few weeks Nersa was forced to probe the fixed charge Tshwane and Joburg wants to institute in the 2019/20 budget. This means that electricity consumers will be burdened with a flat charge before a light is even switched on.
"Since the problem started, Joburg scrapped their plans and Tshwane was given seven days to explain their calculations to Nersa.
"The City of Cape Town instituted a similar "Home User Charge” of R150 on July 1, 2018. This charge was widely contested during the call for public participation at the time.”
Residents have been forced to dig deeper into their pockets after the new tariffs came into effect at the start of this month. They range from 8.88% to 13.37%. The hike will apply to residents who own a prepaid meter in a house worth more than R1 million or have a credit meter regardless of property value.
“This levy was increased to R163.50 in the new budget effective from July 1, 2019.
"DearSA now calls for an urgent public hearing in Cape Town by Nersa. This will give the stakeholders an opportunity to be heard by the City and Nersa."
Nersa spokesperson Charles Hlebela said: “Nersa was not forced to conduct public hearings. It decided to (do so) in Tshwane when it became aware of concerns raised. At this stage we are not able to comment on Cape Town because we are not in possession of that information at this current stage.”
MMC for finance Ian Neilson said there were a number of misconceptions surrounding the hike. “This is misplaced because we have already gone through the processes with Nersa and sought approval. I am not sure about the need for the hearings. Compared to the Eskom hike, this is not massive; we have increased it by 9%.”
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