2011-06-09: Joburg’s electricity tariff is misleading

The front page article that appeared in the Star newspaper of 8 June 2011 alleging that electricity tariffs have been approved with a 35% increase is incorrect.

Council has as yet not adopted the various tariffs of charges and assessment rates for the 2011/12 financial year. These will only be approved on Budget Speech Day, 29 June 2011 and become effective from 1 July 2011.

The domestic electricity tariff is made up of a service, network and energy charge and it is the energy charge (cents per kilowatt hour) that is 35%. The average electricity increase from the previous financial year to the current one is 18% and not 35%.

Section 17 of the Municipal Finance Management Act requires draft resolutions imposing and setting the municipal tax (rates) and tariffs.  This means that a decision must be taken that forms the basis of a public participation process.

This public participation process was duly advertised in March in several newspapers including the Star, on radio, the City’s website and copies were available at all Council regional offices calling for public comment and input on the draft tariffs. The entire month of April was dedicated to this process.

The Star newspaper itself ran an article titled “Council poised to hike tariffs” on the 31 March 2011 giving a breakdown of the proposed tariffs on the basis of a media release issued by Council.

What is also glaringly noticeable in the article is that no comment was sought from Council hence the incorrectness of it, unnecessarily alarming residents.

Ends

Issued by
Virgil James
Communications Specialist
City of Joburg
082 467 9415​