Build One South Africa (BOSA) has expressed strong opposition to the City of Johannesburg’s new prepaid electricity fee. The fee, now set at R200 per month (R230 including VAT) for service and capacity.
This fee, which was approved by the city council in May 2024, took effect this week and has sparked widespread controversy.
The mandatory fee requires prepaid electricity users to pay an additional R2,760 annually, regardless of the number of units purchased, simply for having a prepaid meter.
The monthly surcharge will be automatically deducted when users buy electricity, affecting approximately 250,000 prepaid users in Johannesburg.
Ayanda Allie, BOSA’s member of the Gauteng Provincial Legislature, has criticised the new fee as unjust and punitive. “We condemn this daylight robbery in the strongest possible terms. Many prepaid electricity users deliberately opted out of the post-paid method to avoid the thievery of the City of Joburg during the billing crisis, now we are being punished for it,” stated Allie.
City Power, the municipal electricity provider, justifies the tariff by claiming it is necessary to share the costs of maintaining stolen and damaged infrastructure with consumers. However, BOSA argues that this approach unfairly burdens residents for the municipality’s failure to protect its assets.
“We are living in extremely difficult economic conditions; customers should not be punished for the failure of the state to protect infrastructure. The City must conduct consequence management without punishing residents for crimes we did not commit,” Allie said.
BOSA has announced its support for political parties in the Johannesburg council who plan to move to rescind the decision at the next council sitting.
Allie assured residents that BOSA will closely monitor developments and take further action if necessary.
IOL