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The Congress of South African Trade Unions says it is “shocked and disgusted at the revelation that ‘Eskom has secret deals with 138 big companies that pay dirt-cheap prices for electricity’”.
The average cut-price for these companies, which use about 40% of South Africa's electricity, is around 17c per kilowatt hour (kWh). But for some the tariff could be as low as 9c/kWh. This compares to the + 80c/kWh that households and small businesses will have to pay once Eskom's price hikes are implemented.
Eskom has confirmed that about 10 of these 138 big customers, which had negotiated deals with Eskom in the apartheid era, were not subject to any tariff escalations at all!
“Even more scandalous is the admission that ‘the special deals are considered by Eskom to be so secret that they were not revealed to the National Energy Regulator of SA (Nersa) in the utility's recent application for tariff increases’”.
This confirms COSATU’s belief that the NERSA decision was a rubber stamp which the regulator made without hearing from Eskom the full extent of their existing or proposed tariff policy.
In addition neither the parliamentary committees on energy and public enterprises, nor the Department of Energy are privy to the details of Eskom’s deals.
“This news will make COSATU more determined than ever to mobilise its members and the broader civil society on to the streets in protest at the Eskom tariff hikes. It is absolutely outrageous that a publicly owned utility can hide such important information behind the cover of “commercial sensitivity””, says Patric Craven, the Cosatu spokesperson.
“Nationalised public services must not be run on the same corrupt and secretive way that the private sector operates. The government must demand that all Eskom’s tariffs be made public and if necessary legislate to compel the board to come clean.”
