Energy regulator Nersa has been told not to underestimate the harsh economic realities that people on the ground are confronted with as it considers Eskom’s application for a more than 20 percent tariff hike for the upcoming financial year.

Making his case before Nersa Cape Town’s Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis says the message from Capetonians is simply that they cannot afford these unfair and unjust increases. He explained that the price of electricity has risen by more than 300% over the past 13 years, far exceeding inflation.

He says the municipality in the past absorbed some of the costs of Eskom’s increases but it can no longer do so.

Instead the mayor has proposed that Eskom urgently cut its bloated payroll, cancel tenders with unscrupulous suppliers whose prices are massively inflated and end corruption and mismanagement at the state owned entity to keep electricity prices down.