The South African Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu) has lambasted the forthcoming electricity increase. Eskom is set to increase its electricity tariff on Monday by 12.74% across the board.
This after the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) approved the electricity tariff hike for the 2024/25 financial year in January 2023.
SAFTU national spokesperson, Trevor Shaku says the increase is above the inflation rate and will ultimately widen energy poverty.
“So if you have electricity growing by 12.74% and the wage increases of workers growing only by about 4.7% and below that, it means therefore that the wages of workers are not keeping up to speed with the rising cost of electricity. And this of course causes problems for the consumers, who of course are workers and households. So we have raised this as a matter of concern because we think that the cost of electricity should not cost beyond what the working people can afford.”
