Residents of the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality in South Africa report differing electricity tariffs and delays in rebates following a court decision to restore the inclined block tariff. As of September 1, some prepaid customers were still paying a fixed tariff, while some others received free electricity tokens as compensation, Daily Maverick reports.
In August, the Gqeberha High Court upheld the Democratic Alliance’s application to return the municipality to the inclined block tariff and retrospectively reimburse affected customers for overpayments from July 1. Previously, the city authorities had replaced this tariff with a flat rate of about 4.50 rand per kWh.
Rebate discrepancies
According to Ward 7 councillor Brandon Pegram, who received complaints from residents, some customers bought electricity at the previous rate of 4.51 rand per unit and received a rebate token. Others paid the reduced rate of 3.80 rand but did not receive a token, although some customers at the same rate were credited with one. Similar discrepancies were also reported by users of the Wire-It service.
Pegram said that officials from the revenue, budget and finance departments informed him of a significant system problem affecting the processing and provision of rebate tokens. According to him, the municipality is aware of the inconsistencies and assured that customers eligible for reimbursement would not be left without compensation.
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According to Daily Maverick, rebate calculations have so far been made only for electricity purchases from July 1 to 31. Calculations for August 2026 have not yet been completed.
Tariff and basic charge
Under the inclined block tariff, households paid a lower rate for the first 300 kWh each month, with the price increasing as consumption rose. In its implementation plan, the municipality proposes applying, from September 1, the approved annual increase of 10.95% to the rates that applied to the relevant prepaid residential customers in the 2025/26 financial year.
Such changes require approval by South Africa’s National Energy Regulator, Nersa. Once approved, the municipality plans to upload the revised rates into electricity vending and billing systems.
Prepaid customers are to be provided with additional electricity units, while holders of standard municipal accounts are to have the amounts due credited to their accounts. A monthly basic charge of 91.54 rand including VAT has been proposed for prepaid residential customers who are not part of the indigent assistance programme. Democratic Alliance councillor Ondela Kepe asked the city authorities for clarification on the approval and application of this charge.
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