We don’t want to debate on whether R200 surcharge is necessary – Ramokgopa

Minister of Electricity and Energy Kgosientsho Ramokgopa says that with the exponential rise in electricity prices in the country, an electricity pricing plan needs to be implemented.

The electricity ministry is working on this in consultation with Eskom’s distribution division and the country’s municipalities.

The City of Joburg has started implementing a R200 electricity surcharge for prepaid customers to fund new infrastructure and maintain existing infrastructure.

Electricity surcharge explained

In its defence, Mayor Kabelo Gwamanda argued for fairness, as post-paid customers have already been paying the surcharge.

He explained earlier this month that Johannesburg’s infrastructure would deteriorate without the extra R200.

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“Any attempt to sabotage this critical intervention is an attempt to deliberately collapse the city’s infrastructure,” he said at the time.

“The new electricity surcharge is a necessary intervention to create fairness and equality in the city’s tariff regime. Post-paid customers have been paying the surcharge, and only prepaid customers were excluded.

“What the introduction of the surcharge now seeks to do is end the unfair subsidisation of prepaid customers by post-paid customers,” said Gwamanda.

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“We cannot, with good conscience, disadvantage one customer base in the interest of the other,” he said.

The surcharge has faced opposition from both residents and political parties, who have complained about the already high electricity prices.

Is it necessary? Ramokgopa responds

In a media briefing on Monday, Ramokgopa said he would not voice his opinion on the matter—at least not in public.

However, his department is working on a more sustainable solution to the problem.

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“We have seen a number of initiatives by municipalities that have raised community surcharges,” he said.

“We don’t want to engage in a public debate over whether the R200 surcharge is necessary; what we want to do is find a robust solution to this problem.”

In his previous briefing earlier this month, Ramokgopa spoke of load reduction being the country’s new crisis, despite the power utility generating enough electricity to meet demand.

The country has enjoyed more than 123 days without load shedding, with the last day of load shedding occurring on March 26, 2024, for five hours.

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Load reduction is implemented daily “to avoid network overloading in high-density areas,” according to City Power.

“There is little to no investment in the replenishment, maintenance, upkeep, protection, and modernization of the infrastructure. Municipalities are under severe strain, which is why they implement load reduction,” explained Ramokgopa.

“Essentially, this means the distribution infrastructure does not have the capacity to meet the reticulation demand.

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According to Ramokgopa, South Africans are likely to see load reduction across the country, especially in municipalities where Eskom is not responsible.