Low-income households and small-to-medium enterprises will be shielded from proposed electricity tariff hikes of up to 60%, the government said on Thursday.
A differentiated tariff structure would be put in place to ensure that these sectors of society were protected, government spokesperson Themba Maseko told journalists in Cape Town.
Briefing the media on Wednesday’s Cabinet meeting, Maseko said the proposals, as well as measures to penalise consumers who fail to save electricity, could be finalised ”within the next two months”.
The departments of minerals and energy and public enterprises were currently working on a model to see how this would be done.
Maseko stressed that the tariff hikes were still a proposal and that public hearings would be held.
Further price increases in the next few years ”are still possible”, but these would have to be approved by the regulator.
The government and Eskom repeated concerns that large industrial power users, such as mines, continued bearing the brunt of power cuts and saved electricity, while the rest of society remained energy inefficient.
”Initial indications are that many households and businesses are still not heeding the call to save electricity and this is contributing to the current wave of load shedding,” Maseko said. — Sapa