[Press release]

JOHANNESBURG– Ferrial Adam, 350Afrca.org’s Regional Team Leader commenting on today’s National Energy Regulator (NERSA) tariff determination said: 

“350Africa.org welcomes NERSA’s rejection of Eskom’s obscene price hikes. In the middle of winter and when millions of South Africans already cannot afford electricity why should people have to pay more for the failures of Eskom and Government?

“The country has the installed generation capacity it needs but we have been let down by Eskom’s inability to manage maintenance and by the delays to Medupi and Kusile. 

“Today is another wake up call. It is clear that coal is failing us leaving Eskom to pay panic prices for fuel the cost of which it then tried to pass on to people who cannot pay. It is Government’s obsession with coal that has led us here but the fastest way out of this mess is not more of the same, it is to ramp up investment in solar and wind energy. 

“It means backing de-centralised community owned local solar and wind power facilities and rolling out individual solar panels for houses. We can leap past the failures of coal and finally connect all South Africans but only by scaling up the renewable energy revolution.”

ENDS 

For further information and for interview requests please contact Adi Mistry Frost, Regional Communications Manager at adi@350.org or +27767699302

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