Zuko Komisa

Member of the Mayoral Cabinet (MMC) for Finance in the City of Joburg, Dada Morero, says there will be a review of the newly-introduced R200 per month prepaid power surcharge
Point of View spoke to Dada Morero, who outlined what the City of Johannesburg outlined in the extraordinary meeting of the council held on Tuesday, July 9.
Listen to the conversation here:
According to Morero, the city delayed longer than other metropolises to enact the charge. It was first proposed in 2018, its implementation was halted due to the Covid-19 outbreak, and it was then further postponed since insufficient public discussions were conducted.
Morero stated that the executive had agreed to reconsider the fee in response to criticism from local communities and electricity consumers when it went into force at the beginning of the month during an extraordinary meeting of council on Tuesday, July 9.
“We have noted the concerns that have been coming from communities around this matter, especially in terms of the fixed costs of the availability charge. As a result council said we need to ask the executive to start engaging with the administration to start a process to review and relook at the availability charge cost so that we can relook at what are the possibilities in terms of reduction. The concern is that the surcharge amount is too high.”
Morero said the review will be conducted within the parameters of the approvals we currently hold from Nersa, the energy regulator, and that they will also examine the procedures of the Municipal Finance Management Act, which stipulates that a budget can only be approved.
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