Social unrest warning for South Africa

The South African Human Rights Commission warned that Eskom’s recently proposed electricity price hikes could spark social unrest within the country’s poorer communities.

On 23 September 2024, the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) published Eskom’s multi-year price determination (MYPD).

The proposed average price increases for Eskom direct customers are 36.15% in the next financial year and 43.55% for municipal customers.

The power utility wants to increase prices by 11.81% from 1 April 2026 to 31 March 2027 and 9.10% from 1 April 2027 to 31 March 2028.

Many people, including respected energy analyst and EE Business Intelligence founder Chris Yelland, slated Eskom’s planned price increases.

“After price increases of two to five the inflation rate for many years, how can Eskom apply for a 35% price increase seven times the inflation rate on 1 Apr 2025?” he asked.

“Then on top of that massive increase, a further increase two to three times the inflation rate on 1 Apr 2026, and again on 1 Apr 2027.”

The Human Rights Commission chair, Chris Nissen, questioned why Eskom wants to recover its debt from the poorest of the poor in South Africa.

He said Eskom had been mismanaged, with little to no consequent management, which caused its heavy debt burden.

He said that increasing electricity prices to address the debt and place the burden on struggling South African households is misguided.

“Poor households should not pay the price for wrongdoing for this in power,” Nissen told Cape Talk.

He further cautioned that some individuals or organisations could nefariously use the price hikes to instigate public protests.

He said people in poor communities are struggling to make ends meet, and the planned price hikes could ignite social unrest.

“As the commission, we are foreseeing that these kinds of issues are sparks in our community that can ignite unrest,” Nissen told CapeTalk.

“Unfortunately, when a situation like this is created, you do find opportunistic people who use the issue from a party, political, or individual interest to highlight these issues, but of course with a hidden agenda.”