The North Gauteng High Court has declared invalid the national energy regulator’s (NERSA) public participation process for 2025/26 concerning municipal tariff applications.
The application was brought by AfriForum, to get NERSA to revise timeframes, in conjunction with the City of Cape Town.
The court also ordered the regulator to inform municipalities of increases granted to Eskom and other generators, by the 31st of January every year.
In addition, NERSA must publish every municipality’s cost-of-supply study and tariff application for public participation, as well as finalise decisions on all municipal tariff applications by the 5 May, and simultaneously publish the reasons for each decision.
Geordin Hill-Lewis, Mayor of the City of Cape Town, celebrated this outcome, ‘the order also halts Nersa’s chaotic and delinquent handling of municipal tariff applications. We are appreciative that the court accepted our arguments, imposing a timetable on Nersa that brings to an end the regulator’s common practice of late decisions, without reasons, after the municipal financial year has already begun, and after all budget calculations and public participation is long done.”
Picture: Metropolitan Transportation Plan