“And I saw it was filled with graves,
And tomb-stones where flowers should be;
And Priests in black gowns were walking their rounds,
And binding with briars my joys & desires.”
— William Blake, The Garden of Love
Come on, man. Is this the way to treat people? It’s despicable the way that the utility in Johannesburg is treating its citizens. We are living in a modern era, but this witch-hunt and extortion smacks of the Dark Ages.
Can you believe that to counter the progress of solar power, City Power is extorting an unholy amount of money from people who have invested in their own energy? This predatory behavior smacks of everything against what the world has been wanting: sustainability and the use of renewable energy. This predatory behavior shows sheer desperation from a utility that is failing in its mandate.
Come on, man! The people of Johannesburg must rise up against this evil. This predator has found a way to further bleed the citizens. It is now charging a fixed monthly cost of nearly R1,000 for “network and service fees” on residential customers. Even those trying to escape through solar are being shackled back to a failing grid with punitive tariffs.
This so-called fee means this predator is gouging almost R1,000 from households every single month before a single lightbulb is even turned on.
City Power rolled out prepaid meters as a solution. If you have a prepaid meter, you pay around R230 a month instead of that R1,000 fixed cost. This cost is supposed to be included in the cost of the electricity provided to citizens. But because prepaid meters allow the citizen to control their own spend—and are therefore a “loss-making” way to get money from Johannesburg citizens—the utility has stopped the rollout of prepaid meters.
Come on, man. This is not the way a city should treat its people.
In this country, there are enemies of the people everywhere. These enemies include those who steal from the state, those who defraud state enterprises, and those who raise taxes to further marginalize and impoverish the poor. This behavior by City Power must be checked.
Power misuse on this scale—in this predatory manner against citizens who, by the way, own every pole, wire, and transformer through decades and generations of payments—cannot stand. We have paid for this infrastructure for generations. We should have a say.
