DA federal council chair Helen Zille says her party opposes Eskom’s tariff increase for 2025 because it would amount to an effective 40% increase in power prices, a move that could trigger a “detrimental surge” in the cost of living.
Eskom, praised widely for avoiding load-shedding in recent months, has applied to the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) for tariff hikes to net it revenue of more than R1.4-trillion for 2026 to 2028.
“Such a marked increase would take food off the table in millions of homes, would leave millions having to choose between buying electricity or water and would raise the cost of doing business, killing jobs and stunting economic growth,” Zille told reporters in Cape Town on Thursday.
“Across our local governments the DA is making excellent progress to free residents from Eskom. We will continue to push forward with this crucial project to ensure cheaper and more reliable electricity for everyone where we govern.”
The state-owned power utility, owed R78bn by municipalities, is seeking total revenue of R446bn for 2026, R495bn for 2027 and R537bn for 2028.
“The proposed average price increases for Eskom’s direct customers are 36.15% (April 1 2025 to March 31 2026), 11.81% (April 1 2026 to March 31 20227) and 9.10% (April 1 2027 to March 31 2028),” Eskom said on Tuesday.
The increases are well above inflation, which eased to an annual rate of 3.8% in September from 4.4% in August.
The DA intended to oppose the proposed increases at public hearings conducted by Nersa to be held in 10 days “and through all political means available to us”, said Zille.
“At the same time, where the DA governs, our governments are opposing this proposed tariff hike on behalf of their residents. DA mayors in towns and cities have lodged their objections in writing to Nersa and will continue to oppose the hike in every way they can.”
DA mayors in towns and cities have lodged their objections in writing to Nersa and will continue to oppose the hike in every way they can.
— Helen Zille, DA federal council chair
In the DA-run Western Cape, “the [party’s] energy resilience programme is bringing 2,000MW of new energy into the province’s grid and already by midway through this year 743MW had been secured and added”, she said.
“Almost 10 years ago the process began in the Western Cape to get the regulatory environment in place to allow municipalities to buy back electricity from small-scale embedded generation — legalising the sale of excess power produced on a small scale at homes and businesses.
“Today this has opened the door to dozens of local governments buying in excess electricity, with the positive spin-off that municipalities are able to pass on subsidised power to poor homes.”
The Midvaal municipality is proceeding with plans to procure power from independent power producers (IPPs) and a council resolution was already on the table, Zille said
“Midvaal is in the procurement stage of a PPP [public private partnership] project to finance, design, manage, operate, maintain and expand the electricity distribution network in the municipality,” Zille said.
In Cape Town, the party was intensifying efforts to secure alternative power sources, invest in green energy and manage demand strategically, she added.
“The Kraaifontein solar system is part of Cape Town’s innovative small-scale embedded generation programme. The programme is expected to save R2.4m in electricity costs in the first year alone, while contributing 1.5GWh of clean energy annually,” she said.
In Drakenstein, the DA was on track to work with IPPs to increase local energy resilience. In Kouga, the DA government is on track to launch a 20MW solar plant as well as the appropriate storage solution, Zille said.
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