Eskom pleads poverty while losing money to corruption – Energy analyst

Africa Melane speaks with Matthew Cruz, an energy analyst at Forest Energies.

Listen below:

Eskom has proposed consolidating its tariff offerings from 10 down to three.

They also intend to remove the threshold-based block tariff structure.

These changes, paired with significant planned price increases, could have far-reaching financial implications for households and businesses.

Eskom has requested huge increases of 36%, but Cruz says they are likely to get half of that.

According to Cruz, Eskom has argued that the current tariffs do not reflect their costs.

However, their costs have been inflated by corruption, he argues.

“You can’t just go to us as the payers of electricity and say, 'We can’t meet the costs. Please pay more money.' They should focus on not losing money to corruption.” 

- Matthew Cruz, Energy analyst - Forest Energies

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These issues are exacerbated by the Kusile power station facing critical repair delays.

Scroll up to the audio player to listen to the interview.