South Africans have now been presented with new electricity prices by Eskom.
As announced a while back, Eskom has officially raised electricity prices today, April 1. The South African writes that it is part of their Multi-Year Price Determination (MYPD) increase agreed upon in 2022. There have been tariff hikes since 2023 and another in 2025.
SABC News writes that The National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) approved the tariff increase last year. According to Energy expert Sampson Mamphweli, the electricity tariff increase will affect the working class the most.
He said, “There is an additional 25.24%, which is what they call an affordability subsidy. This basically means that those who can afford it will have to subsidies the poor by an additional 25.24%. What this then means is that it becomes cheaper to use alternative sources of energy.”
Daphne Mokwena, spokesperson for Eskom, said the electricity tariff increases for local municipalities will take effect from 1 July this year.
“Local authority tariffs charges from the period 01 July 2024 to 30 June 2025 a percentage increase of 12.72%. Eskom direct customers from the period 01 April 2024 to 31 March 2025 all tariff charges except the affordability subsidy charge a percentage increase of 12.74%. Affordability subsidy charge a percentage increase of 25.24%. The average increase applied to the key industrial and urban tariffs will be 13.29% due to the increase in the affordability subsidy charge.”
