KZN ANC urges metros to go to court if Eskom tariff hike is carried out

The ANC in KwaZulu-Natal is encouraging provincial municipalities to challenge Eskom’s 18.65% electricity tariff hike through the courts.

That is if the power utility fails to heed President Cyril Ramaphosa’s call to halt implementation of the power tariff increase granted by the National Energy Regulator of SA (Nersa) earlier in January.

On Tuesday, provincial secretary Bheki Mtolo lauded Ramaphosa’s intervention and pledged the ANC’s support.

“[We] support the ANC president’s call for Eskom to halt the implementation of the 18.65% tariff increase in April, [failing which] we call upon ANC-led municipalities together with members of the society to take this matter to the courts,” Mtolo said.

According to Mtolo, the provincial executive committee (PEC) is has also rejected a further 12.74% for the next year based on the following factors:

• The negative economic conditions that look set to impose hardships on millions of people in KZN
• Rising electricity tariffs that have heightened the public’s fear and anxiety
• Confidence in the ANC-government that has been undermined
• A growing number of forecasts that have revealed rising food prices
• Fuel prices that are set to increase next week as announced by the Central Energy Fund on Monday. According to the fund, all fuel types except diesel will rise 
• Salaries have not increased, and many people are unemployed and poverty stricken as a result of Covid-19 and the devastating 2022 floods.

Ramaphosa spent the day with the PEC on Monday in a “frank and robust” discussion. Some of the topics included long-lasting solutions to the challenges of load-shedding, the collapse of water infrastructure and high rate of unemployment.

The PEC and the president shared ideas for visible action that moves the province beyond those problems, including holding their deployees to account.

“We must hasten to point out that the participation of the president in the PEC was aimed at instilling the culture of accountability by leaders elected by the structures. We want to entrench this culture in the regions and branches —, ANC deployees must be held accountable by the structures and communities for their actions or inability to act,” Mtolo explained. 

To achieve this, the provincial secretary said the monitoring and service delivery unit in the presidency and in the office of the premier would continuously make reports available to ensure that targets were met. 

“Underexpenditure and the return of money to the Treasury will not be tolerated. In this regard, we support the ANC president’s commitment to ensure that a senior official in the presidency is assigned to monitor underspending, to ensure that funds are not returned to the Treasury,” he added.

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