Electricity bills to rise by 8.8% if Eskom gets its way with NERSA – SABC News
Another above-inflation electricity tariff hike could be on the cards for consumers if Eskom gets its way.
The power utility is seeking to implement an average tariff increase of 8.8% from April next year, following an adjustment approved by the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA).
Eskom is requesting permission to effect the third year of its multi-year price determination that was decided upon in 2025.
Nersa’s Rhulani Mathebula says stakeholders have been invited to submit their views on the tariff structure Eskom is proposing to use to charge for electricity in the 2027/28 financial year.
“We are referring to when you pay for electricity, there are certain components in your pricing or in your statement that you actually pay for that includes basic charges, service charges, and as well as the energy that you use. It’s a request for Eskom in how they should be structuring those charges, in the coming year. So we know that in the previous years, when certain charges were introduced, stakeholders and customers were not happy about the introduction of things like your basic charge and all that,” says Mathebula.
The National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) has called for public and stakeholder comments on Eskom’s proposed 8.83% electricity tariff structure for 2027. https://t.co/v8NC3Nd4CU pic.twitter.com/X3mW1a0dfW
— SABC News (@SABCNews) September 4, 2026
The process gives customers and other stakeholders a chance to tell Nersa, whether they support the way Eskom wants to structure its electricity prices.
Mathebula says Nersa can only look at ensuring the structure Eskom uses to charge its prices, does not result in cases of double counting and charging consumers for things they were never supposed to be paying for.
On 3 September 2026: SAFM interview with Ms Azwindini Magoda: Head of Department for Gas Pricing and Tariffs. Topic: NERSA approves Sasol Gas’s maximum price application for the 2026/27 and 2027/28 financial years https://t.co/NeSyelf7mI
— NERSA_ZA (@NERSA_ZA) September 4, 2026
“If Eskom had its way, you were probably going to be sitting at around 16 plus in terms of the percentage. But there is a lot of amounts, billions that the regulator disallowed, mainly due to certain things that we believed were not necessarily due to the prudent operation of the utility,” he says.
Consumers and businesses are already feeling the squeeze from years of above-inflation electricity prices, adding to the growing cost-of-living pressures.