JOHANNESBURG - The South African Local Government Association has urged municipalities to challenge the 18.65% electricity tariff hike.
Salga chairperson Jongiziwe Dlabathi said that municipalities across the country were experiencing significant drops in revenue collection. In Ekurhuleni, where Dlabathi is a councillor, he said that the municipality had received more than 4,000 requests from residents and businesses to go off the national grid.
He said that if the tariff hike was implemented in April, coupled with worsening load shedding, there was a risk of more people going off Eskom’s grid. "Salga is of the view that the recent tariff increase by Nersa cannot be left unchallenged for they drastically increase the cost of living. They will be detrimental to the local government sector in particular when it comes to the affordability part."