The Congress of South African Trade Unions on Tuesday called out Energy Minister over the cost increases that consumers are being forced to pay "for Eskom's sins" Cosatu said in a statement it was utterly opposed to the 9‚4 % tariff increase that the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) has awarded to Eskom‚ adding that consumers are being forced to carry the burden of Eskom’s inefficiencies."The public...can no longer afford to subsidise Eskom’s out of control increases twice a year. Eskom has been increasing electricity prices at two to five times the levels of inflation for more than five years now. Workers are lucky if they receive increases in line with inflation."The Minister for Energy must do her job and protect consumers from these exorbitant increases and also ensure that Eskom cuts its wasteful expenditure. Eskom pleads poverty and demands massive price increases yet it can afford to give R40 million to the New Age for its breakfast shows‚ to spend R30 million on end of year parties and pay huge bonuses to clearly non-performing executives."Cosatu said the Eskom increase was "exacerbated by the fact that municipalities will also add on this increase and then all that will be passed on to the consumers".This was in addition to the fuel levy hike announced in the Budget and last year's increases in personal income tax."What government needs to understand and make clear to Eskom is that consumers cannot be expected to shoulder the whole cost of getting Eskom back on its feet. The recapitalisation of Eskom should be the responsibility of government through the fiscus. Government‚ as the shareholder‚ must also intervene in a big way to help Eskom get out of its financial problems and to raise the funds needed. They must force Eskom to cut fat‚ improve drastically its revenue collection capacity and manage contracts effectively to address its financial problems‚" Cosatu said...