Pretoria - The DA has urged its lawyers to file papers in the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, to challenge the decision by the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) to grant Eskom an 18.65% tariff increase which comes into effect in April.
DA leader John Steenhuisen made the announcement yesterday during his address to the nation, saying his party’s decision was prompted by the worsening electricity crisis.
The pending court action came after Nersa’s decision to grant Eskom tariff increases of 18.65% for the 2023/24 financial year and a further 12.74% for the 2024/25 financial year.
“I have instructed our lawyers to apply to the High Court of South Africa for an interdict to stop the implementation of this tariff increase.
“South Africans, who have already had to spend a third of 2022 in darkness and are burdened with indefinite Stage 6 load shedding, are now expected to also pay for the looting and mismanagement of Eskom through exorbitant tariff increases,” Steenhuisen said.
He said the DA rejected the tariff increase and Stage 6 load shedding, “and we reject government’s poor response – or rather lack of response – to the biggest crisis our country has faced in the history of our democracy”.
He said they had instructed their lawyers to apply to the High Court for the interdict against the implementation of the increase, pending the following relief:
• To have Nersa’s decision of January 12, 2023, and the ongoing and repeated decisions to implement load shedding declared inconsistent with the Constitution and therefore invalid, and to have these decisions set aside.
• To have government’s response to the ongoing energy crisis declared inconsistent with the Constitution and invalid.
• To have government’s response to the crisis declared as having failed to respect, protect, promote and fulfil the rights in the Bill of Rights.
“As part of this application, we will also ask that the court direct the government to file, within 30 days, a comprehensive plan, including short-term, medium-term and long-term steps, to avert the energy crisis,” Steenhuisen said.
He said it was clear that the government would not act in the interests of the country’s citizens, including protecting them from blackouts and unaffordable electricity tariffs, unless compelled by a court of law to do so.
In addition, Steenhuisen said the party would be mobilising South Africans “in the fight against load shedding and the origin of this crisis” during a “People’s march” which the DA would be staging to the ANC headquarters, Luthuli House, in Johannesburg on Wednesday, January 25.
Pretoria News