The Democratic Alliance has vowed to fight the National Energy Regulator of South Africa’s approval of an 8.76% electricity tariff increase for this year and 8.83% for next year, saying the decision defies a High Court judgment.
The opposition party said Nersa’s decision on 7 February to approve the exact same R54.7 billion revenue adjustment previously set aside by the Pretoria High Court is an unacceptable betrayal of the South African public.
“This ‘redetermination’, which arrives at the identical figure Judge Jan Swanepoel dismissed as a ‘thumb-suck’ in December, proves that Nersa’s public consultation process was a cynical charade designed to legalise a repackaged secret deal,” said Kevin Mileham, the DA’s spokesperson on electricity and energy.
The tariff increases will result in a cumulative compound electricity price hike of 18.36% on South African households over the next two years, with an 8.76% increase in 2026/27 to recover R12 billion, followed by a further 8.83% increase in 2027/28 to recover R23.013 billion.
The DA will not stand by while Nersa attempts to bill South Africans for its own technical ineptitude. We will fight this in Parliament, through the Public Protector, and all other available avenues until the Nersa board is reconstituted and the consumer is protected.
Mileham said the multi-billion rand shortfall in Eskom’s books was the direct result of Nersa’s inability to perform basic arithmetic, pointing to chairperson Thembani Bukula’s admission that “version control issues” and “data input errors” led to the miscalculation of Eskom’s depreciation allowance.
“It is irregular and unacceptable that the public is now being billed for the technical ineptitude of highly paid regulatory officials,” he said.
The DA said Nersa ignored expert submissions from industry, agriculture, and the City of Cape Town, all of which provided evidence that Eskom’s R24.3 billion profit for the half-year ending September 2025 rendered additional hikes unnecessary.
“Instead, the regulator has prioritised a ‘utility death spiral’ where rising prices drive consumers off-grid, forcing the remaining customers to underwrite Eskom’s historical mismanagement,” Mileham said.
ALSO READ: Nersa approves 8.76% Eskom tariff hike amid calculation error controversy
The party calls for the immediate resignation of the Nersa board, saying the current leadership has proven itself technically and ethically unfit to oversee the R1.2 trillion electricity industry.
The DA also demanded a forensic audit of Nersa’s tariff calculations by an independent third party.
Mileham said the regulator’s decision will force local governments to implement price hikes in a local government election year, putting municipalities in the crosshairs of angry residents.
“The DA will not stand by while Nersa attempts to bill South Africans for its own technical ineptitude. We will fight this in Parliament, through the Public Protector, and all other available avenues until the Nersa board is reconstituted and the consumer is protected,” he said.
Nersa said the redetermination was conducted using the approved Multi-Year Price Determination 4 methodology, following a public consultation process in line with the court judgment that remitted the regulator’s decision on Eskom’s Generation Regulatory Asset Base for redetermination.
The regulator defended the increases as consistent with statutory tariff principles requiring tariffs that enable an efficient licensee to recover the full cost of licensed activities, including a reasonable return.
ALSO READ: Electricity bills set to soar as Nersa settles R54bn error with Eskom
