New electricity tariff is unfair: homeowners

FEARING job losses after the adjusted level 4 lockdown came into effect on Monday, residents in Verulam said the pending increased electricity tariff was unfair. Electricity prices in eThekwini Municipality will rise by 14.59% from Thursday.

The residents from Canelands do not believe they should pay more for electricity, particularly since there were frequent power outages in the area.

They did not have electricity last week.

A father, who declined to be named, said: “We live near an informal settlement. To power their homes, they illegally connect our power supply to their homes. Once the supply is overloaded, it cuts off for us. This has been happening for years. We either have electricity for a few hours or not at all.”

He said he wrote, phoned and sent a message on the city’s WhatsApp number.

“But nothing has happened. We want informal residents to get access to electricity so they don’t affect us.” He said the outages cost him. “We cannot buy refrigerated foods in bulk. Instead, we have to buy items almost every day and this costs more.

“I have a prepaid electricity meter and when the hike is implemented, the price of the electricity vouchers will rise. This is unfair because we must pay so much more for services that we barely get.”

A retired motor spares manager, who also declined to be named, said: “The outages started about 10 years ago and our complaints to the municipality started back then. In all this time, nothing has been done to resolve the issue.”

He lives with his wife, 74, and they collect an old-age grant.

“We cannot afford more increases. Even when we approach the local councillor for help, we are told the matter is being taken up with the municipality, but there is no feedback.”

The city and the area’s councillor did not comment at the time of publication.