GOOD speech by Brett Herron,
GOOD: Secretary-General & Member of Parliament
03 March 2022
Note to editors: This was the speech delivered by GOOD Secretary-General & Member of Parliament, Brett Herron, during a debate on the negative impact of the high tariffs for electricity and other forms of energy on the Republic. This speech was delivered today in Parliament.
Madam Speaker,
The steepling cost of electricity stifles economic growth, but I’d like to focus on its impact on families and social cohesion.
We can quibble about build quality and continuing spatial injustice, but the democratic State has built millions of subsidised homes, connected millions of previously deprived South Africans to the electricity grid, and providing millions of people with access to water.
These deliverables should have contributed to reducing the level of inequality apartheid bequeathed us. But the people living in the homes cannot afford electricity. Nor can they afford water.
Mothers battle to cook on dangerous paraffin stoves and children battle to study by candlelight – as they did in the 1960s, 70s and 80s.
No-one should be denied access to these services because they are unaffordable. They are essential to our development as human beings. And they are essential building blocks if we are to develop a just and inclusive society on the rabble of our past.
If this is to be an honest debate, we need to discuss how to achieve complete transparency in the electricity supply chain, how to reduce the price of bulk supply, and how to put an end to profit-making by municipalities who are literally throttling consumers.
Many municipalities are now using – illegally in my view – pre-paid electricity meters as a debt-collecting tool. When consumers who allegedly owe money for water purchase electricity, the municipalities unilaterally deduct a portion of the money as a “repayment”.
I recently met a disabled resident in Mitchells Plain. She hasn’t had water for over a year! Her situation mirrors that of many across the country.
Her water is disconnected but she’s still charged a fixed pipe levy fee of R61 per month plus a “dunning charge” of R149 per month.
The City uses her prepaid electricity payments to collect what it says is an unpaid water account. When she is able to scrape R10 together to buy electricity she gets 2.6 units. They take R3.10 for water arrears from the R10.
They literally, and only occasionally, buy enough electricity to cook a quick meal and the units are up. They sit in darkness until the sun rises.
Madam Speaker,
Honourable Mileham and the DA must acknowledge that part of the unaffordability problem is the huge mark-ups on electricity – the profit making – by municipalities.
While the woman in Mitchell’s Plain battles to survive, the DA’s flagship government, Cape Town, collected R8.2 Biillion in electricity revenue in the first half of this financial year, for which it paid R5.4 billion. That’s a whopping R2.8 billion profit in just six months.
For the full financial year the City’s budget projects revenue of R15.7 billion and bulk purchases of R11.2 billon – with a gross profit of R4.5 billion and projected nett profit of R2.6 billion.
Imagine if R2.6 billion was in the hands of the consumer and the small business.
Which leads us to the necessity for transparency. We get to interrogate and oppose Eskom’s tariff increases, but the same cannot be said for the NERSA applications by municipalities.
When I did an request in terms of PAIA for the City of Cape Town’s tariff application to NERSA, for the current financial year (2021/22), my request was refused with the City claiming their application “falls within the commercial activities”.
Perhaps Hon Mileham can explain why a Municipal NERSA application is regarded as confidential, and in whose interest this is.
Media enquiries:
Brett Herron, GOOD: Secretary-General & Member of Parliament
Cell: 082 5183264
Email: bretth@forgood.org.za
Samkelo Mgobozi, GOOD: Media Manager
Cell: 0792315977 (whatsapp)/0829684021 (calls)
Email: samm@forgood.org.za