Electricity price hikes in Joburg, Pretoria, Cape Town, and other cities

Many South African households should brace for electricity bills increasing by more than R200 starting July 2025.

While a 12.74% electricity tariff increase already kicked in for Eskom Direct customers in April 2025, municipalities only adjust their power charges from July each year.

The National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) has approved an 11.32% increase in Eskom’s bulk electricity prices for municipalities.

However, municipalities can deviate from this figure based on cost-to-serve studies submitted to Nersa.

The South African Property Owners Association (SAPOA) has pointed out that most large municipalities have confirmed plans to increase their electricity tariffs by more than Eskom’s bulk hike.

Several of these municipalities have erroneously claimed their increases are in line with Eskom’s 12.74% hike, which is only applicable to its direct customers.

MyBroadband calculated the impact that the proposed electricity tariff adjustments would have on residents in 10 metros or large municipalities.

Electricity consumption varies greatly depending on a household’s particular habits and demand.

For our analysis, we used Eskom’s average monthly consumption of 656kWh for Homepower 4 customers.

These households have single-phase 16-amp connections, the most common type of residential electricity connection in the country.

With the current proposed changes, East London’s Buffalo City metro will have the undesirable title of the most expensive municipal utility for the average electricity user — with a monthly bill of R2,760.

Second worst will be the City of Tshwane, with an average monthly bill of R2,707, followed closely by Nelson Mandela Bay with a bill of R2,697.

The City of Cape Town (CoCT) has said it will only be increasing its electricity charges by an average of 2.00%.

Cape Town mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis explained that this was due to the city decoupling the cost of other municipal services from its electricity tariffs.

According to its 2025/2026 budget, the city will be decreasing variable energy charges on its Home User tariff — which applies to all properties valued over R1 million.

For consumption up to 600kWh, the energy charge is declining by 1.7%. Every kWh consumed over 600kWh will cost 7.05% less.

However, the fixed service tariff will be increasing from R281.78 to R390.87, a difference of 38.71%.

While that is a significant jump, the variable charge reduction makes a big impact on the overall bill.

A user that consumes 656kWh per month will only be paying R55.26 — or 2.11% — more on their monthly electricity bill.

While this adjustment has been welcomed, Capetonians are up in arms about increases in property rates and other fixed charges.

Largest price increases

Of the 10 municipalities we compared, Nelspruit’s Mbombela plans to implement the biggest hike of 14%.

That means the average household in that municipality will be paying over R320 more per month on their monthly electricity bill.

Durban’s Ethekwini is not far off, with an average increase of 13.67%.

It should be emphasised that the implementation of the new municipal tariffs will depend on approval from Nersa.

The regulator should announce its decisions on municipal tariff applications within the next few weeks.

The table below compares the average tariff increases planned by each municipality and the current and potential monthly electricity bills for customers with 656kWh usage on a prepaid plan in each municipality.