Joburg to review municipal tariffs

Johannesburg Mayor Amos Masondo announced on Wednesday that the city will review its tariff rates based on the revised municipal tariffs of 28,9% announced by Eskom. He said the 28,9% tariff increase, effective from July 1, is up by more than 4% compared to the initial figure of 24,8%.

“In Joburg we had already approved our tariffs based on the 24,8%. We are now forced to go back to the drawing board to review our tariffs based on the 28,9%.

“This is a blow for the people of Johannesburg – both residents and the business community. A sharp rise in electricity costs will have a severe impact on poor households who will be further affected by higher prices of other essential commodities,” said Masondo.

He said if the City did not review the rate, it would lose more than R200m.

“It would do this country a lot of good if Eskom can be forced to reduce or improve its inefficiencies which are unacceptably high. If Eskom can reduce its losses, then tariffs would not be so high,” he said.

He said the city had been placed in an unenviable situation as it receives the bulk of its electricity from Eskom. – BuaNews

Readers' Comments Have a comment about this article? Email us now.

Thanks for the article,... it was interesting to see that we as Joburg residents will have to fork out more for our rates – even though the current billing system is not supportive of accurate billing.

Once they have this increase in place – will it address the fact that they have a non-functional billing system, where some household are being held ‘hostage’ by the fact that their electricity will be cut – although their own staff and systems can attest to the fact that incorrect meters are being read – or incorrect usage estimations are imposed?

We have practical knowledge of a property being sold and transferred, in Roodepoort, but as the new ‘system’ is being implemented, the staff can not address the issue that sellers are still paying for a house they no longer own / live in – since October 2009. Not to mention that any credit which was on the account is being depleted by incorrect monthly estimations.

Then we are so ‘fortunate’ as to have to pay the rates based on a meter reading, in our new place, even though a pre-paid meter reader was installed and active since November 2009.

Both these issues have been addressed face-to-face, on many occasions at the Joburg Rates Offices – but there seems to be no willingness / progress to address this issue

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