Court ruling could change municipal electricity tariffs in South Africa

ENERGY experts believe the recent court judgment against the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) could finally lead to customers being charged the "right price".

- THAMI MAGUBANE

Experts said part of the judgment is that Nersa has to look at individual applications from all the municipalities that apply for tariff increases instead of the previous method of approving increases in a uniform manner.

It was reported recently that a ruling by Judge Etienne Labuschagne at the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria on Friday has taken Nersa to task over the manner tariffs are approved. The court found that approval for the implementation of municipal electricity tariff hikes, without the use of proper cost studies and public participation processes, is unconstitutional. The judge also slammed Nersa for its argument that customers do not have the right to know what it costs municipalities to supply them with electricity.

The judgment followed an urgent application by AfriForum, which disputed the process Nersa followed to determine all municipal tariffs for this financial year, ending June next year.