Frustrated Pretoria residents protest against Eskom tariff hikes amidst intense rolling blackouts

Civil rights organisation #NotInMyName orginised a march to national energy regulator of south africa and union buildings against long hours of ongoing loadshedding and 18% tarriff hike granted to eskom.Photo:Felix Dlangamandla

By Naledi Sikhakhane

20 Jan 2023

‘Untie your hands Mr President!’ says the president of #NotInMyName Siyabulela Jentile during a protest against tariff hikes granted by the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) to Eskom during intense rolling blackouts.

#NotInmyName in collaboration with Mamelodi, Nellmapius and Easterust (MNE) stakeholders forum marched to Nersa offices and to the Union Buildings from Church Square in Pretoria to protest the 18.65% hike the energy regulator has granted Eskom.

The leaders claimed it was unreasonable to expect a widely unemployed country to afford the exorbitant costs of electricity.

While reading out the memorandum for Nersa Chief Executive Officer, Nomalanga Sithole, the leader of MNE, Khutso Seretjane said “As it stands, citizens are paying for a service that is interrupted at any given moment without just cause. So it is uncouth for Nersa to give Eskom an 18.65% tariff hike, for people to pay more for a service they receive less of. Moreover, the scheduled power outages have had a significant impact on the livelihoods and businesses of South Africans — an impact that Eskom has not and will not pay them for, instead South Africans are mandated to pay more for their disservice,” Seretjane said.

Civil rights organisation #NotInMyName organised a march to the National Energy Regulator of South Africa and Union Buildings against long hours of ongoing load shedding and an 18% tariff hike granted to Eskom. Photo:Felix Dlangamandla

Seretjane accused officials of being detached from the citizens’ lived realities saying Nersa must “stave off and /or retract the Eskom tariff until such time that equilibrium has been established and there are reasonable grounds to authorise the rise of electricity.”

Mmamosa Thobetjane, 56 from Mamelodi said rolling blackouts ruin her business of selling vegetables because they spoil quickly without a fridge, especially during heatwaves.

“We are asking for them to hear us out and understand us, our children are losing jobs and our small businesses are hard to run when things are like this. We can't pay for electricity we don’t have with money we don’t have,” said Thobetjane.

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Azapo sit in

Liberation movement the Azanian People’s Organisation (Azapo), orchestrated a protest sit-in at Nersa’s offices in Pretoria for five days and joined in the protest with Not In My Name International (Nimni). Deputy president of Azapo, Kekeletso Khena said Nersa didn’t engage communities and didn’t follow due processes before granting the tariff hike.

Civil rights organisation #NotInMyName organised a march to Nersa and the Union Buildings Photo: Felix Dlangamandla

“We asked them how they informed the communities and let them have a voice, they mentioned only three media houses, Business Day, Beeld, and Independent. If they had the intention to engage all communities they would have informed people through media houses all demographics have access to. What happened to SABC (South African Broadcasting Corporation)? They say we spoke to people on Zoom, meanwhile, grandma Zanele doesn't even have R5 for fakumoya, the R5 airtime voucher, they (Nersa officials) don’t even know what fakumoya is,” said Khana.

In the document outlining which processes Nersa followed to engage citizens before reaching a decision, it states that outside of the three media houses, “The hearing was duly advertised…it was also posted on our website, and it is held in accordance with the Energy Regulator Act, in which affected parties are given an opportunity to submit their views and present relevant facts and evidence to the regulator,” the document read.

Khena said the short-term goal was to join legal action to have the tariff hike reviewed but, in the long-term, rolling blackouts can be solved through innovation providing political will exists.

Civil rights organisation #NotInMyName organised a march to Nersa and the Union Buildings Photo: Felix Dlangamandla

“In a perfect world, innovation would come into play, we understand that these things are breaking down, they are very old. The turbines they use are old and some parts are no longer even made by companies but you have technology such as 3D today, why are you not patenting, and recreating these parts so they are not consistently breaking down, it can create employment and sort out some of the problems at Eskom. The problem with this government is that they have no vision so we need them to go so younger people can come in and come up with solutions,” said Khena.

The organisations gave Nersa and the office in the Presidency 21 days to respond and threatened more protest action if they are not engaged by then. MC/DM

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Azapo sit in