South Africa’s average electricity prices have risen at an alarming rate over the past decade.

Recent statistics revealed have shown that the power utility Eskom has raised prices by a massive 582% since load-shedding was first implemented in 2007.

This startling number is a huge shift from being a country that had boasted among the lowest electricity fees in the world during the first decade of the country’s democracy – the period of 1994 to 2003.

During that window Eskom charged between 10 cents and 16 cents per kWh with annual increases never exceeding the inflation rate.

Following a small increase from 2004 to 2006, the situation changed dramatically from 2008.

According to numbers revealed by MyBroadband, prices skyrocketed for the next four years when average annual increases were between 16-28% - 25c to 59c/kWh

Since then the average price increases have also consistently remained above the rate of inflation, with the rise for the 2020/2021 financial year being a huge 15.06%.

Darul Ihsan Media Desk