Nersa has recently accepted a proposal from Eskom for the increase in tariffs, which would take effect on the first of July, 2019. In this article we focus in on residents in the eThekwini municipality and how this affects them. We will have a look at what exactly will be increased and by how much. In a poll that was conducted recently by the Daily News, a whopping ninety-four percent of people indicated that they cannot afford the eThekwini Municipailty’s proposed tariff increase.
eThekwini municipality are planning to implement the following increased tariffs effective as of 1 July, 2019:
| Service | 2019/2020 |
| Assessment rates | 6.90% |
| Water | |
| Residential | 15.00% |
| Business | 15.50% |
| Electricity | 14.40% |
| Sanitation | 9.90% |
| Refuse | 9.90% |
As can be seen, eThekwini municipality plans to the hike the tariff price for water, electricity, sanitation as well as refuse. Deputy Mayor, Councillor Fawzia Peer has shed some light on the increases and which factors proved influential in drafting up this budget proposal.
Peer mentions that the tariff increases are a result of repairs and maintenance of municipal infrastructure, the cost of addressing service delivery backlogs, bulk purchases of water and electricity, the impact of capital spending on operating expenditure and employee-related costs.
She goes further to say that in some cases, these tariff hikes have been unavoidable. For instance, the water and electricity bulk tariff increases as well as salary increases are well above inflation.
With regards to the water tariff increases, she goes further to explain this, saying: “With regards to the water tariff increase of 15% for domestic consumers and 15.5% for business are based on the Umgeni Water Board increase of 9.6% and takes into account the additional capital expenditure on Water in terms of the rollout of the Western Aqueduct, huge urbanization increase trends, provision of ablution facilities, as well as free basic water,”