The Green Connection

The Green Connection

Striving For Sustainable Development

URL: https://thegreenconnection.org.za/

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SA’s Increasing Energy Costs Put Pressure On The Most Vulnerable Among Us

Thu, 08/13/2026 - 06:15

August 13, 2026

SA’s Increasing Energy Costs Put Pressure On The Most Vulnerable Among Us

As winter grips South Africa, millions of households are facing an impossible choice between keeping the lights on, putting food on the table, and paying essential expenses such as school fees and transport costs. The Green Connection believes that the country’s current tariff structure may be deepening poverty and inequality while forcing ordinary citizens to shoulder the cost of institutional failures over which they have no control.

“Every tariff increase could further entrench inequality and may place an unbearable burden on families already struggling to make ends meet. The problem extends beyond inflationary pressures, pointing to an electricity pricing system that compels consumers to pay for historical inefficiencies, cost overruns, governance failures, and mistakes associated with major infrastructure projects. For many South Africans, rising electricity tariffs are no longer simply a matter of economics but a matter of survival,” says The Green Connection’s Outreach Ambassador, Neville van Rooy.

Since 2015, Eskom has implemented 12 consecutive annual tariff increases – all approved by the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA). Electricity costs have dramatically increased over the past two decades, rising by around 190 per cent in real terms while continuing to outpace inflation. Meanwhile, in 2023, StatsSA reported that more than 23 million South Africans live below the lower-bound poverty threshold, highlighting concerns that rising living costs could place many households at risk of falling into extreme poverty.

The Green Connection notes that the pressure is especially severe for households that purchase electricity through municipalities. Unlike customers who buy electricity directly from Eskom, municipal consumers often pay additional charges because local authorities must recover the costs of maintaining infrastructure and funding essential public services. As a result, the same tariff increase can have vastly different consequences depending on where people live and how they access electricity.

Electricity transmission lines (left), Prepaid Electricity meter (right)

“The current situation demonstrates how deeply energy insecurity is affecting vulnerable communities. Winter has once again exposed the reality facing millions of people across South Africa. Families are being forced to make impossible decisions between electricity, food, medicine, school fees, and other basic necessities. These are not abstract policy discussions. These are real decisions being made in real homes every day,” adds van Rooy.

According to Lisa Makaula, Advocacy Lead at The Green Connection “Increasing tariffs, without addressing the underlying problems within the system, simply shifts responsibility onto those who are least able to bear the cost. The public may effectively be paying for a R54.7 billion mistake made by someone else. That is fundamentally unjust. Communities should not be expected to absorb the costs of poor planning, regulatory failures, or infrastructure mismanagement. Accountability must become part of the conversation.”

In January 2026, The Green Connection submitted recommendations to NERSA regarding Eskom’s Multi-Year Price Determination process – its second input into the MYPD6 evaluation process – emphasising the need for greater transparency, stronger public participation, and a comprehensive review of the country’s electricity pricing framework. The organisation argues that the existing approach is unsustainable because it relies heavily on assumptions linked to costly coal infrastructure projects, including Medupi and Kusile, despite the growing affordability of renewable energy technologies.

According to The Green Connection, the country’s continued reliance on fossil fuels is placing unnecessary pressure on consumers while slowing progress towards a more affordable and resilient energy future.

Makaula says that South Africa has reached a turning point in how electricity should be priced, and that the Electricity Pricing Policy – which has been approved by Cabinet – should be an opportunity to correct injustices of the past. She says, “We cannot continue relying on outdated models that ignore changing economic and technological realities, and that no longer serve the interests of the people. Renewable energy is already cheaper to build than new coal infrastructure, yet electricity pricing continues to be influenced by assumptions rooted in a broken system. The pricing overhaul should serve the public interest because access to affordable energy should not be a luxury but is essential for dignity, health, education, and economic opportunity.”

The Green Connection maintains that greater public participation is essential if long-term solutions are to be developed. According to the eco-justice organisation, communities must be given meaningful opportunities to participate in decisions that directly affect their lives. The country’s long-term energy security depends on embracing a just transition that prioritises affordability, sustainability, and accountability. This includes expanding investment in renewable energy, improving transparency within the electricity sector, and ensuring that vulnerable households are protected from excessive price increases.

The Green Connection also believes that the reform of South Africa’s Electricity Pricing Policy presents an important opportunity to align electricity pricing with current energy needs while shielding vulnerable households from escalating costs. This should include expanding and strengthening Free Basic Electricity provisions so that poor and working-class communities are better protected from tariff increases. Electricity pricing must support equitable access to energy and ensure that people are not penalised simply for remaining connected to the national grid.

As South Africans continue to confront rising living costs, The Green Connection is calling for urgent intervention to prevent even more households from being pushed into poverty. “The country is facing a defining moment,” says van Rooy. “We cannot build a just society while people are being forced to choose between warmth, food, education, and electricity. Access to affordable energy should strengthen communities rather than push them further into hardship. If we fail to act now, the social and economic consequences may affect future generations.”

Community comments:
Reinett Pullen, a small-scale fisherwoman and community activist from the Eastern Cape, believes that rising electricity costs are placing unbearable pressure on fishing communities that depend on reliable power to sustain their livelihoods. Deborah De Wee, environmental activist and founding member of the Spirit of Endeavour Fisherwomen in Doring Bay, is of the opinion that escalating electricity prices are driving already vulnerable fishing households deeper into poverty. Voices from Elands Bay echo these concerns, warning that unaffordable electricity tariffs may result in fishing families, pensioners, and unemployed residents struggling to survive as household costs continue to outpace already limited incomes.

Pullen says, “For fishing communities, electricity is not a luxury. It is the difference between putting food on the table and going hungry. We rely on electricity to preserve our catch, feed our families, and sustain our livelihoods, yet every increase in tariffs forces us to make impossible choices between electricity, food, education, and other basic necessities. A just energy transition cannot be measured only by market efficiency but also by whether it protects those who already carry the heaviest burden. We urge NERSA and government to put affordability, social justice, and meaningful public participation at the centre of all electricity reforms. Access to affordable electricity is not a privilege. It is essential to our dignity, our livelihoods, and our future.”

De Wee says, “In Doring Bay, our livelihoods depend on the sea, but our income is seasonal and uncertain. Electricity costs, however, continue to rise regardless of whether families have an income or not. Many households are surviving on social grants, while others are being forced to return to collecting firewood because electricity has become unaffordable. We are spending more money than ever for fewer units of power, and for many families, electricity now lasts only a few days before they have to buy again. This is not just an energy issue. It is a poverty issue, a dignity issue, and a community survival issue. Policymakers must recognise that people cannot continue to absorb endless increases while struggling to meet their most basic needs. Affordable electricity is essential if communities like ours are to have any chance of a secure and dignified future.”

Small-scale fisher in Elands Bay, Patrick Adonis says, “Electricity tariffs are currently beyond what we can afford. Our households are struggling, our expenses are greater than our income, so we have to stretch every cent as far as possible. But the electricity increases and tariffs have gone through the roof. This hits us very hard, and it is affecting us as the fishing community of Elands Bay in a very negative way.”

Elands Bay resident, pensioner Michelle Engelbrecht says, “Why is electricity becoming so expensive? As a pensioner and a resident of Cederberg and Elands Bay, I am deeply concerned because electricity prices have gone up again. For people – who are already struggling to make ends meet – our way of life is being affected. How are we supposed to survive with only R2,400 each month (the pensioner’s grant) when more than half is spent just on electricity? It is simply unliveable. Today, I am being forced to go back to the old days of cooking our daily food over an open fire, because I cannot afford electricity. It’s simply too expensive. And what about those who are currently unemployed? Even if you are working, all you can afford is electricity, because the price keeps rising higher and higher. Is there no solution? We cannot continue to live like this.”

Elands Bay fisherman, Andries Booysen says, “Government and NERSA should take a careful look at these electricity tariffs, because excessive price increases are bringing us to our knees. The cost of living is already too high. It’s not fair that we are already struggling to keep our heads above water, and now we also have to bear the burden of these additional increases.”

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The post SA’s Increasing Energy Costs Put Pressure On The Most Vulnerable Among Us appeared first on The Green Connection.

Categories: G1. Progressive Green

Climate Blind, Weakly Regulated And Costly: SANPC Bill Is Not In Public Interest

Wed, 07/22/2026 - 04:26

July 22, 2026

Climate Blind, Weakly Regulated And Costly: SANPC Bill Is Not In Public Interest

The Green Connection recently submitted written comments to Parliament calling for the South African National Petroleum Company (SANPC) Bill to be withdrawn. The eco-justice organisation warns that the proposed legislation could deepen South Africa’s dependence on oil and gas, while simultaneously weakening public oversight and exposing taxpayers to major environmental clean up costs. The Bill would establish a single state owned oil and gas company – consolidating iGas, PetroSA and the Strategic Fuel Fund (SFF) responsible for oil and gas exploration, production, storage, transport and sales, including through new liquefied natural gas infrastructure in South Africa and abroad.

“The Bill would place an exceptionally broad range of oil and gas functions in the hands of a single state-owned entity – making strong oversight, transparency and public accountability essential. That level of power is especially concerning because the Bill is climate-blind at precisely the moment when South Africa’s laws and international commitments require climate accountability."

"It is not only shocking but very concerning that the Bill does not refer to climate change, not once, despite South Africa having recently enacted a Climate Change Act. Section 7 of the Act - which came into operation in March 2025 - requires government departments to review and if necessary revise, coordinate and harmonise their laws and policies to ensure that the risks of climate change are taken into consideration, and to give effect to the principles and objects of the Act (including climate change mitigation and adaptation). Ignoring climate change in a Bill of this magnitude is not merely an oversight because, fundamentally, it undermines the whole-of-government approach that South Africa has committed to."

"By failing to acknowledge the climate crisis, the Bill risks locking the country into long-term fossil fuel infrastructure when public policy should be accelerating a fair shift away from oil and gas." Lisa Makaula The Green Connection Advocacy and Programmes Lead

Makaula also highlights a separate but equally important concern relating to PetroSA’s substantial legacy decommissioning and rehabilitation liabilities. She says, “These obligations are estimated to cost around R10 billion, yet only about R3 billion has reportedly been set aside. And since the Bill is contradictory on whether these liabilities will transfer to the new SANPC, along with PetroSA’s valuable rights and assets, or if it will be left behind in an underfunded PetroSA severed from its revenue streams, taxpayers could eventually end up footing these very expensive bills.”

Notably, in an April 2024 media statement the then-Department of Mineral Resources and Energy (now the Department of Mineral and Petroleum Resources) indicated that to kickstart the operations of the new entity, a ‘lease and assign model’ was being proposed to ‘strategically select what is leased and assigned to the SANPC by ring-fencing or isolating PetroSA’s legacy assets such as decommissioning liability and current operating challenges of the Gas to Liquid Refinery’.

The Green Connection further cautions that future oil and gas revenues could bypass the national budget. The State is entitled to a 20% carried interest in future oil and gas projects – a direct stake in production, separate from taxes and royalties. Under the Bill, revenue from this stake would flow directly to the new company to fund its operations, instead of being paid into the National Revenue Fund where Parliament normally determines how public money is spent. The organisation recommends that any such revenues be paid into the National Revenue Fund, or into a transparent,
ring-fenced statutory fund dedicated to the just transition, decommissioning and rehabilitation.

“There are several strong reasons that Parliament should withdraw the SANPC Bill. However, if it should proceed, the Bill must be fundamentally amended to protect the public interest, strengthen oversight and ensure that any oil and gas revenues support the just transition – not further fossil fuel expansion,” Lisa Makaula The Green Connection Advocacy and Programmes Lead

Compared with an earlier 2023 version of the Bill, several oversight safeguards appear to have been removed. These include requirements for government approval of subsidiaries, foreign transactions and new funding sources, as well as stronger checks on the appointment and removal of senior executives. The Green Connection says these changes are concerning in light of South Africa’s recent experience of state capture and corruption at state-owned entities.

The submission also raises additional governance and process concerns, including the absence of dedicated board representation for affected communities or civil society, weak rules for disqualifying unsuitable board members, unclear whistle-blower protections and reduced checks on senior appointments. The Green Connection has asked Parliament to confirm whether the Bill should have been referred to the provinces because of its potential environmental and community impacts, and whether it should first have been considered by NEDLAC, given its significance for economic policy, labour, business and communities.

“Coastal communities and small-scale fishers are already living with the consequences of risky ocean and energy decisions. Any new state-owned energy company must be accountable to the people most affected by its decisions. Communities should not be left out of governance, consultation or the benefits of public resources.” Neville Van Rooy The Green Connection Outreach Ambassador

The Green Connection has requested the opportunity to make an oral submission when public hearings are held.

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