Amid high unemployment and the cost of living crisis, popular opposition has been mounting to the proposal by the South African electricity public utility, Eskom, to hike the electricity tariff. Activists have been attending the public hearings by the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA) in growing numbers.
Following Eskom’s revenue application to the regulator in late September, proposing electricity tariff increases of 36.15%, 11.81% and 9.1% respectively for the upcoming three financial years, NERSA started the consultative process on November 18.
Starting with Western Cape, the public hearings will cover all provinces, concluding on December 4 in Gauteng, before NERSA’s final decision on December 20.
At the hearing in Mpumalanga province on Wednesday, November 27, Spuy Sebotsa, the Acting Regional Secretary of the left-wing National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) presented submissions on behalf of the country’s single largest union.
“If NERSA approves” these proposals by Eskom, “it will deepen the crisis for industries,” increasing retrenchments at a time when the official unemployment rate is already 33.5%. The consequent further acceleration of the “de-industrialization of the country…will be very difficult to recover from,” NUMSA maintains.
“Our core belief is that electricity is a public good that should be affordable for industry and ordinary citizens…Eskom is a state-owned entity. It should be utilized to electrify the majority of the people without a profit-motive,” the union’s spokesperson, Phakamile Hlubi-Majola, told Peoples Dispatch.
Earlier on November 21, the hearing in Durban, South Africa’s third-most populous city and the largest in KwaZulu-Natal province was abandoned after the turnout exceeded NERSA’s preparation to accommodate at the venue in the working class-dominated inner city.
Ground-Up reported that 250 people left outside protested, while some tried to force their way in. Among those protesting outside the venue was Thapelo Mohapi, General Secretary of Abahlali baseMjondolo, South Africa’s militant shack dweller’s movement.
“In a country with a high unemployment rate, poverty and inequality, it’s unfortunate that Eskom is even considering the move. We just cannot afford it. We are coming from a very difficult time of COVID-19, flooding and the economic slump and people cannot even afford a 1% increase,” he complained.
“Eskom’s proposed electricity tariff increase is nine times the current rate of inflation. This is obviously unaffordable and will sink both businesses and citizens further into financial distress, particularly working class and poor communities,” the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) said in a statement late September.
The hike will particularly affect the “working class and poor” who “have been struggling to provide even the bare minimum for their families”, it added. “Businesses too can ill-afford such a hefty increase in energy costs. If granted, this latest tariff application will cripple economic growth and set the entire country back.”
The country’s largest trade union federation – which had expelled NUMSA in 2014 for its refusal to continue supporting the then-ruling African National Congress (ANC) amid intensifying neoliberal policies – deemed Eskom’s proposed tariff hike as “a suicidal pact the nation cannot afford”.
The failure of ANC’s neoliberal agenda “on all fronts” was evident in the “massive loss” it suffered in the election in mid-2024, added Hlubi-Majola. “They have learned no lessons.”
Instead, forming an alliance with opposition parties to its right which have shown a greater enthusiasm for neoliberal policies, the ANC formed the Government of National Unity (GNU). The Democratic Alliance (DA), one of its main former opposition and now an ally in the GNU, is also protesting against Eskom’s proposals.
“I think it is a publicity stunt because Eskom is paying high tariffs in part because of the role of the private sector which the DA supports,” maintains Hlubi-Majola.
“Since the coal mines owned by Eskom were privatized, the cost of the coal has been increasing. Renewable emergency, from the start, was a private sector initiative. The government does not want Eskom to play any role in the provision of renewable energy. It has been completely handed over to the private players. This is contributing to the very high electricity tariffs we are paying.”
This privatization drive is only increasing under the GNU, she added. “There is now talk about privatizing the water supply also.”
