In addition to tariff hike, Gauteng residents on City Power’s prepaid meters to fork out more for service, capacity charges

JOHANNESBURG – As of 1 July, Gauteng residents on Joburg City Power’s prepaid meters will be charged a recurring R200 monthly fee. 

City Power said the new fee was split into two – R70 for service charges and R130 for network capacity charges. 

The fee is in addition to the 12.7% tariff increase which the utility also implemented on 1 July.

Johannesburg City Power said that it customers had not been contributing sufficiently to its service and capacity charges. 

The utility said it was no longer sustainable for it to provide these services without charging. 

City Power’s general manager for pricing and tariffs, Frank Hinda, explained how this would work if a customer bought electricity for R200.

“You take the R200 and split it into two – the R100 will be used for the basic charges and for the other R100, you will be getting kilowatt hours, which will probably be around 16kW you will get after VAT.”

Hinda said that only customers with a monthly salary of less than R6,000 and registered as indigent would be exempt from the new charges.