Good news for people who pay for electricity in Johannesburg

The City of Johannesburg has published its draft budget for the 2025/26 financial year, and it has confirmed that the controversial R200 prepaid surcharge will remain unchanged.

However, there is an error in the document. The tariff section proposes leaving the service charge for residential prepaid customers with high consumption at R70, and says “the network capacity charge is also unchanged at R200/month”.

This is confusing as the charge currently sits at R130 per month, excluding VAT.

“The residential prepaid tariff (Low) will continue to be exempt from the basic charges, thereby consisting of energy charges only,” the metro’s draft budget document stated.

“It is proposed that the service charge to the residential prepaid (High) customer remains unchanged at R70/month and the network capacity charge also unchanged at R200/month.”

MyBroadband has asked City Power for clarity, and the municipal power provider confirmed that the combined cost of the two fees will remain at R200 per month.

“The total charge of R200 will remain unchanged, comprising a R70 service charge and a R130 network capacity charge,” it said.

Had Joburg increased the network capacity charge to R200 per month, excluding VAT, the prepaid fixed charges in 2025/26 would total R310.5 per month with VAT.

Residents were outraged when the City of Johannesburg first introduced the surcharge for prepaid customers.

Following the backlash, the political administration indicated that the surcharge would be reviewed and potentially scrapped.

While the municipality had proposed the new charge several times, it was withdrawn following outcry from civil rights and other public organisations.

In July 2024, many residents were surprised to find that roughly R230 (including VAT) had been deducted from their first electricity recharge of the month.

Many residents took to social media and the MyBroadband Forum to voice their frustration.

“Topped up R500 this morning and got 99.30 unit,” one resident posted on the MyBroadband Forum.

They attached a screenshot of their prepaid electricity receipt. Of the R500 spent, only R235 went towards electricity credits.

Joburg mayor intervenes

Johannesburg Mayor Dada Morero said in early April 2025 that he would oppose proposed tariff adjustments for the 2025/26 financial year, attributing his stance to the strain households in the metro already face.

He highlighted several revisions to the proposal in a statement, including not increasing the availability charge for prepaid and conventional meters.

“I have requested the withdrawal of the 2025/26 budget report, the City Power tariff reports, and the Draft Property Rates report from the council agenda,” said Morero.

“There will be no increases to availability charges for both prepaid and conventional meters.”

He explained that the prepaid residential availability charge would have increased to around R270 before VAT, while retaining the conventional residential availability charge at R930.

Morero added that the tariff proposals included a 12.51% electricity tariff increase, in alignment with Eskom’s approved 12.74% tariff hike for municipal customers.

However, this also appears to be an error. Nersa approved an 11.32% tariff hike for municipal providers. The 12.74% to which Morero referred is the average across Eskom’s direct customers.

Municipal customers will be hit with the new municipal electricity tariffs from 1 July 2025.

It should be noted that the 11.32% price adjustment is on wholesale electricity provided to municipal utilities.

The figure will likely be higher for end-users as municipalities like the City of Johannesburg must still submit their applications, including individual cost of supply studies.