KSD ratepayers want to buy Eskom power directly

A group calling themselves “KSD Concerned Residents” want to cut out the municipal middleman and buy power directly from Eskom — and a petition suggests broad support for their call.

Almost 10,000 people have signed the petition, and the residents group says unless its demand is met it will see KSD in court.

The person behind the campaign, started in July to force authorities to slash tariffs on municipal electricity purchases by 50% or allow consumers to buy their own supply, is Mthatha resident Phikolomzi Adonis.

The TVET college lecturer told the Dispatch on Tuesday the petition had garnered 4,000 signatures online while 6,000 people had signed the hard copy edition.

The group plans to march to KSD municipal offices in Mthatha to hand over the petition on Thursday.

“The rapid increase of electricity tariffs has proved to be a decision taken by KSD on a yearly basis without any proper consultation through the IDP [roadshows]. This directly affects residents regardless of their class,” Adonis said.

“What is more interesting is that most of the ward councillors, who form part of the council, are not even users of Mtiza [the name given to electricity sold by KSD] but are rather Eskom users.

“We question why people who are not directly affected by municipal electricity tariffs decide on behalf of Mtiza users to increase tariffs.”

KSD municipal spokesperson Sonwabo Mampoza hit back, saying KSD had a constitutional right to reticulate and distribute electrical energy within its jurisdiction.

That right was also enshrined in the Municipal Finance Management Act, which regulated how municipalities administered their financial affairs.

“KSD is operating under the distribution licence issued by the National Energy Regulator of SA (Nersa) and in terms of that licence, it has the sole right to distribute power in the distribution area of supply approved by Nersa.”

Mampoza said according to that licence agreement with the energy regulator, no other licensed distributor could encroach on the local authority’s area of supply.

“KSD therefore cannot accede to the demand of the petitioners as this matter is outside our authority as it is a constitutional and a statutory matter.”

But Adonis dismissed this thinking, arguing that in Mnquma municipality, for example, consumers all bought their electricity from Eskom.

He said even in KSD some ratepayers who lived in the same ward were buying direct from the power utility and others from KSD.

He said those buying from the municipality had to deal with two “middlemen” as they were effectively charged by both the municipality and the vendors they bought power from.

“We have independent power producers who manufacture and sell electricity, so it’s not true that it’s only the municipality that can legally sell it to us,” Adonis said.

Mampoza said electricity tariffs were regulated by Nersa, which issued tariff benchmark guidelines setting limits within which to increase tariffs. Customers had a right to lodge a dispute with the energy regulator if they were unhappy with the approved tariffs.

He said Mtiza was a private company contracted in October 2004 to provide technical support on the electricity service, but the contract had been terminated in 2015.

Since then electricity has been purchased directly from the municipality.

Adonis warned they were prepared to take the municipality to court and would even escalate the matter to the Competition Commission and the SA Human Rights Commission, as they believed their rights were being violated by the high tariffs.