IN THE NEWS Eskom wants to milk poor dry – ANCYL
THE ANC Youth League (ANCYL) has called on the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) to reject Eskom’s request for a 19.9 percent increase in the tariff it charges for electricity.
The youth league pointed out yesterday that this “ridiculous” increase proposed by Eskom will result in those buying electricity from municipalities paying almost 28 percent more for electricity, after municipalities have included their mark-up.”
The league has called on South Africans to make submissions to Nersa, rejecting the increase.
Public hearings on Eskom’s revenue application for 2018/19 will be held in Kimberley on November 6.
“The proposed increase by Eskom is worse than attempting to milk a mosquito dry, because it disregards the sad reality that more than 30.4 million South Africans are living in poverty and that almost 32 percent of household’s disposable income goes to housing, water, electricity, gas and other fuels,” ANCYL national spokesperson, Mlondi Mkhize, said yesterday.
“This absurd proposal ignores the grim reality that almost 75 percent of South African households’ net income is used to service creditors and 60 percent of these South Africans, who will be the hardest hit by this tariff increase, struggle to service their debt consistently.”
Mkhize added that the league was of the view that this proposed increase was not informed by anything else besides “voodoo accounting, which is performed to cover up the financial delinquency that has characterised Eskom in the recent past”.
“The ANCYL is also of the firm view that it is criminal to attempt to pass on the severe costs of gross financial mismanagement and corruption at Eskom to poor South Africans, while those who are guilty of creating the financial crisis at Eskom, through fixing prices of coal, issuing tenders irregularly and paying service providers unduly, are swimming in a pool of ill-gotten wealth without any disturbance.”
Mkhize pointed out that electricity was a public good which the state had to provide to citizens for free.
“Unfortunately in South Africa we have witnessed the opposite, with electricity prices having increased by an average of 327 percent in the period 2006 to 2016. This ridiculous increase will not only kill the already struggling to survive South African households, but it will also have a negative impact on the economy, because it will increase the cost of production.”
The youth league added that the only way for Eskom was to “seek the arrest of all those who have been siphoning money illegally from this public institution, and recoup the money stolen from Eskom to ease the current financial crisis”.
“The tactic of making poor South Africans pay for this theft and financial delinquency will not work, and if pursued against the will of the people, Eskom and Nersa will meet the full might of young people.”
The ANCYL also called on the government to respond positively to the league’s call to nationalise mines and other strategic sectors of the economy.