Fight back

Businesses are joining the fight against the South African Local Government Association (Salga), which is trying to get a court order to allow municipalities to gain the exclusive right to distribute electricity. Currently, both Eskom and municipalities are allowed to provide electricity to end-users. However, getting power directly from Eskom is cheaper than paying a ‘middle-man’ like a municipality. Salga argues this is discriminatory and, if successful in its court bid, would see municipalities either take over distribution or allow them to add a surcharge to Eskom’s pricing. Business group, the Business League, is joining Eskom in its fight against this, arguing it would be highly detrimental to end-users.