Watch the full address: Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis addresses the Cape Town Press Club
- “Every single megawatt the city was buying from sources other than Eskom was cheaper than the electricity on offer from the State-owned entity – and this was before the up-to-44% tariff hike application Eskom had lodged with the National Energy Regulator of South Africa for the 2025/26 financial year,” said Cape Town Mayor, Geordin Hill-Lewis.
- He was addressing the Cape Town Press Club this past week.
“I think the debate is increasingly going to turn to the affordability of power, and not so much availability. The last ten years public anger has been focused on availability, and we kind of put up with these extraordinary price increases because of the availability crisis. Now that this is receding, we’ll have a lot more public attention on the affordability issue,” said Hill-Lewis.
Hill-Lewis added that the lull in loadshedding had not convinced the City of Cape Town to deviate from its planned energy budget, with the metro rolling out several power projects to reduce its reliance on Eskom, including a new solar plant, a battery energy storage system, and a small-scale energy generation programme.
“Frankly, we must continue to reduce our reliance on Eskom as quickly as possible,” said Hill-Lewis.
Author: Bryan Groenendaal
