The lobby group AfriForum has temporarily halted a settlement agreement between Eskom and the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa), arguing that the public was not engaged in the decision-making process.

The R54 billion deal followed an error at Nersa, which affected the calculations of Eskom’s revenue clawback amounts.

As a result, Nersa agreed Eskom could recover the additional R54 billion, pushing increases from the originally approved hikes for 2026 and 2027 to 8.76% and 8.83% for those years.

Head of local government affairs at AfriForum, Morne Mostert says, “And the fact that they did not tell anyone, and it’s only the media that found out about the previous settlements that were made. Because of this, we think that there is a delusion of transparency.”

“AfriForum sought to intervene to see what the actual reasons are for not only the change in the amount. But remember that we need to have a bit of a discussion, that it’s not just as simple as making the correction and adding that amount to the consumer,” Mostert explains.

Below is the full interview with AfriForum, Morne Mostert: