• City Power’s prepaid customer base now incurs a monthly R200 service fee if they are not registered as indigent.
• This is over and above an up to 12.7 percent increase in the cost of electricity.
• The R200 service fee seemingly took Johannesburg residents by surprise when it came into effect on Monday.

On Monday, prepaid City Power customers saw a new deduction coming off of purchases. Residents with a prepaid meter now incur a R200 service fee (exclusive of VAT) every month when purchasing electricity.

This new service fee was approved by the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) and sits over and above a 12.7 percent increase in electricity tariffs. The R200 fee isn’t charged to households classified as indigent and earn less than R6 000 per month.

The new fee and increased energy cost comes after a cost and supply analysis was conducted during the City of Johannesburg’s most recent Integrated Development Plan workshop. It’s also worth mentioning that Eskom won a court decision against City of Joburg for an account that hasn’t been paid since October 2023.

“City Power will over the next few years gradually subject the prepaid customer to a more appropriate contribution to the cost of supplying the particular customer category with the introduction of a total basic charge of R200. This consists of a R70 service charge and a R130 network capacity charge before consideration of VAT,” City Power said in a statement.

The fee has however, proven to be a shock to customers given that it was seemingly only announced last week, and very little warning was given to customers.

As such, reaction to R200 suddenly being reserved for a service fee and effectively giving customers less power than what they paid for has been vitriolic to say the least.

“You are guaranteed payment in advance plus no reading of meters or collection costs and now you impose a R200+ additional levy. Its called milking the cow and taking advantage . Deal with all the bypassed meters and illegal connections first,” one user said on X last week.

While the fee is only payable once a month, it has still come as quite a shock. As for recharges under R200, according to some it appears as if City Power puts half the amount towards the fee and the other half is credited to a customer’s account.

This fee and increases to the cost of power come amidst load reduction where certain high usage areas see their power cut for up to two and a half hours a day.