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'Eskom's 18,49% increase to municipalities comes at the worst possible time, with so many South Africans struggling with the rising cost of living. The public is being forced to pay for corruption and mismanagement at Eskom in the most unfair, unaffordable and unjust way. That is why in Cape Town we are working to end our Eskom reliance and diversify energy supply to more affordable power sources. Approximately 70% of the City's income from the sale of electricity goes toward buying bulk electricity from Eskom, and the remaining 30% goes toward a reliable electricity service, healthy grid infrastructure, and the programme to end load-shedding over time.

'In crunching the numbers for our upcoming budget, we are working hard to cushion especially the poorest residents from this massive Eskom increase as far as possible, while also funding our programme to end load-shedding and reduce sole reliance on expensive Eskom power as fast as possible,' said Mayor Hill-Lewis.

Mayor Hill-Lewis has repeatedly tabled the City's opposition to Eskom's massively above-inflation tariff asks during public hearings held by NERSA, most recently in September 2022.

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