Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis said that he understood that the cost of living was increasingly high, however, he said that the current electricity hike, which had been influenced by Eskom, was still lower than what people under Eskom would pay.
CAPE TOWN – City of Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis said that electricity tariffs for ratepayers would increase by 17.6%.
This comes after the National Energy Regular of South Africa (Nersa) approved Eskom’s 18.65% electricity hike this month.
The mayor was speaking while presenting the city’s R70 billion budget for the 2023/2024 financial year.
Mayor Hill-Lewis said that he understood that the cost of living was increasingly high, as many ratepayers tried to keep up with many other expenses.
However, he said that the current electricity hike, which had been influenced by Eskom, was still lower than what people under Eskom would pay.
“So those people who are on our lifeline tariff, which means they are our poor residents, people who are already struggling at the moment to make ends meet, they get a huge discount in electricity, up to 600 units. We’ve raised that limit to 600 units, which is quite a lot, it used to be 350 and now it’s 600.”
Meanwhile, the mayor said that the city was better than Eskom when it comes to efficiency and fixing broken power cables and that comes at a cost.
