The Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality (BCMM) is pushing ahead with public participation on its draft electricity tariffs for the 2026/27 financial year, despite the city facing legal scrutiny for its repeated failures to consult residents properly.
Residents have already felt the consequences of inadequate engagement with unprecedented increases in electricity costs through the addition of a basic electricity service charge. In its recent judgment, the Bhisho High Court reviewed and set aside these charges, after finding that BCMM had not conducted lawful and meaningful public participation.
The ruling confirmed what households and businesses have been raising for years. The city rushed tariff approvals, lacked detailed explanations accompanying earlier submissions and excluded key ratepayer groups from previous processes.
These failures underline that the municipality has not met the standard required for transparent tariff setting.
It is clear that the recent ruling, which the municipality is now appealing, has had no impact. BCMM is once again pushing ahead with another compressed public input window, offering residents less than a month to examine the new tariff models.
BCMM plans to finalise the tariffs in December and submit them to the national energy regulator by 12 December 2025. This timetable leaves little room for thorough scrutiny or meaningful amendment in response to the concerns residents may raise over the next few weeks.
It is therefore vital that all residents and businesses use this opportunity to make their voices heard.
At a time when electricity costs are rising sharply, and when households and employers are already bearing the financial burden of past decisions made without proper consultation, we cannot allow the municipality to steamroll further punitive increases on already overburdened consumers.
Rushing the process only increases the risk that the municipality will once again face legal or public resistance.
The DA believes that public participation must be substantive and must give residents a real opportunity to influence the decisions that affect their monthly bills.
We will continue to monitor the process, engage directly with affected communities and ensure that the municipality accounts for every step taken in the setting of these tariffs.
Residents deserve a process that respects their rights and provides clarity, fairness and transparency. They deserve a city that listens before it acts and that places people at the centre of every financial decision.