The South African Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU) welcomes the Pretoria High Court’s decisive ruling setting aside Eskom’s R54 billion tariff clawback arrangement with the National Energy Regulator of South Africa. The Court has correctly affirmed that decisions with such profound consequences for households, workers, and the economy cannot be taken behind closed doors, without meaningful public participation.
This judgment is a significant victory for electricity consumers who have endured relentless tariff hikes for over a decade, while their living standards have deteriorated and wages have stagnated. It reasserts the constitutional principle that regulatory decisions must be transparent, accountable, and participatory.
SAFTU calls on Eskom and the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA) to drop this matter entirely. There is no social, economic, or moral justification for attempting to claw back billions from consumers at a time when Eskom itself has publicly announced a significant turnaround and sharply increased profit levels. Working-class households, the unemployed, small businesses, and struggling industries must be given immediate relief.
More fundamentally, this ruling must open the door to a comprehensive review and potential reversal of the substantial electricity tariffs imposed on consumers over the past 15 years. These increases have fuelled de-industrialisation, destroyed jobs, deepened poverty and inequality, and undermined the competitiveness of the South African economy.
Consumers cannot be endlessly punished to compensate for governance failures, cost overruns, and flawed policy choices.
SAFTU further demands that Eskom and the government cancel existing and future contracts with Independent Power Producers (IPPs) that have entrenched expensive, profit-driven electricity procurement at the expense of the public interest. These contracts have locked consumers into high prices while hollowing out Eskom’s own generation and planning capacity.
Instead, Eskom must be empowered and mandated to roll out publicly owned renewable energy at scale, using its balance sheet, technical expertise, and grid infrastructure to drive a true just transition. Such a transition must be worker-led, publicly financed, climate-responsible, and focused on affordable electricity, job creation, localisation, and energy sovereignty, not private profiteering.
This High Court decision must mark a turning point. Electricity is a public good, not a commodity for extraction. SAFTU will continue to mobilise to defend affordable energy, democratic regulation, and a publicly owned energy future that puts people before profit.
Issued on behalf of the SAFTU General Secretary Zwelinzima Vavi
For media inquiries, contact the National Spokesperson at:
Newton Masuku:
Media Officer
Asive Dyani
0719019564
