Cape Town Electricity Costs Soar Up to 223%
Save the middle class – stop charging them more than their fair share!
There are those who get mad at me when i challenge the DA but living in Knysna taught me that they were not the saviour i once thought them to be. What they do wrong in one place can always happen in another and doesn’t most things come down to money.
Whilst Knysna will be wondering how much more rates will increase next year, Cape Town, with total disregard for public discussion (how familiar does that sound, hey, Knysna and Plett) has increased electricity costs for some, resulting in account increases of up to 223%.
Small businesses, who should be helped, are instead being nailed the most.
“Small commercial power users (under 1 000 kW/h a month) pay a daily service charge of R25.37 and an energy charge of R36.83 a unit. The second category has no service charge but a higher energy charge [of a crazy] R213.97 a unit.
The schedule does not explain how users qualify for the different categories. And no explanation has been given to justify the sudden use of daily service charges for businesses which were not required to pay it before.”
Has the whole country run into bankruptcy? Is the goal to make the middle class pay more until they are poor too and can pay no more? What then?
Read more in this statement by the Chamber of Commerce.
One of my tenants in a small office in Cape Town has had increases of up to 400%. One feels so helpless as, if you don’t pay, they might just cut you off.
I certainly had no communication about the increases before they were instituted. This goes against all the talk of helping small business in the country. I am fuming. We are now putting in a prepaid meter at the enormous cost of R6700.
Sandi, it’s happening all over. In these cases, the DA is squeezing paying consumers to give little or non-paying consumers services. I absolutely agree that the poor must be helped but to continually take whilst not enlightening the public with the situation and options available is tantamount to gaining votes at any cost. They don’t have to worry about losing the white vote because they know that white people will complain and then vote for them anyway, in fear that that they have no choice. There’s not enough of ‘them working for us’ attitude.
We were promised the ‘refit’ system where you could sell electricity back to the grid. It seems it was considered by the competitions board to be unfair if escom can set the price they pay without going out to tender, and it wont be possible for every household to tender – some crap like that, but it is considered fair to suddenly start charging a daily service charge, or increase the cost. Cape Town was talking about letting customers feed the grid, why is this still not available?
I urge small commercial users to investigate getting off the grid. Cover your roof in solar panels and add a few wind turbines. Yes, the capital cost is high, but payback can be as little as 4 years, particularly with these increases.
Knysna was dabbling with the idea of an ocean driven turbine beyond the Heads that could power the whole town but the fact is that the electricity would first have to be sold to Eskom and then back to us.