- DA councillor Belinda Kayser-Echeozonjoku has approached the Johannesburg City Council to request a newly introduced R200 service fee be reconsidered or scrapped.
- The DA has described the fee as “absurd” and highlighted that government needs to stop asking residents to be resilient in the face of unending price hikes.
- The councillor also urges residents to check that their residential meter isn’t registered as a business, which attracts higher fees.
On Monday, prepaid electricity customers in Johannesburg were shocked to discover that they were being charged a R200 service fee when topping up their meters. This fee came along with an increased price of electricity leaving many with fewer units than they’ve come to expect.
This, naturally, resulted in a massive disdain being expressed by residents and now the DA – which has rejected a spot in the Gauteng Government of Provincial Unity – has called on the Johannesburg City Council to reconsider the R200 service fee. The party says it has been inundated by calls from citizens and has labelled the fee “absurd”.
“Residents are outraged that their electricity purchases being deducted to accommodate the surcharge leaves them with almost no value for money. There is also confusion between business surcharge and residential surcharge, there has been no detailed communication on how it will be administered and utilised by City Power and residential properties are being charged business rates and surcharges,” writes DA councillor Belinda Kayser-Echeozonjoku.
“The DA remains adamant that residents cannot bear the brunt of the City’s inability to manage finances,” the councillor adds.
We have to agree with Kayser-Echeozonjoku here. The news of a R200 service fee (R230 once VAT is added) was poorly communicated and details about how this fee is charged are vague to non-existent.
The councillor has urged residents to check whether their meter is registered as a business or a residence as this can result in residential customers being charged as if they are businesses.
The DA has sent a letter to MMC Dada Morero to “urgently review and possibly do away with this surcharge.”
“If you recall, we raised this concern on record in council and advised that this surcharge can almost be viewed as a double charge,” Kayser-Echeozonjoku added in her communication.
Another DA councillor, Nicole Van Dyk, told the SABC that residents are constantly asked to be resilient and that needs to end. Not only is electricity more expensive now, so too is water and refuse removal.
“City Power is currently sitting with a R40 billion overdraft because they are dealing with non-payers. Prepaid is a great incentive to get your money upfront, but now you’re penalizing those people who are paying upfront for the power they are going to be using,” Van Dyk told the public broadcaster.
But the City of Johannesburg seems as it won’t budge on the new prepaid electricity fee.
“The new electricity surcharge is a necessary intervention to create fairness and equality in the City’s tariffs regime. Post-paid customers have been paying the surcharge and only pre-paid customers were ecluded. What the introduction of the surcharge now seeks to do is to end the unfair subsidization of prepaid customers by post-paid customers,” executive mayor Kabelo Gwamanda said in a statement.
“The Democratic Alliance and its stooges are opportunistically sensationalizing a sensitive matter that concerns us all. They are attempting to subvert Council decisions by arousing public sentiment under false pretences to gain political mileage,” adds Gwamanda.
Except, that isn’t really the case. Johannesburg residents on prepaid meters are understandably upset at how this surcharge was introduced. Many residents have even pointed out that little is done to address theft of electricity and decried the name calling used by Gwamanda.
The prepaid electricity fee is only payable once a month, but for many, a R200 fee is a bridge too far. Here’s hoping cooler heads prevail and this fee is put out to pasture sooner rather than later.
