Bad news about electricity prices in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban, and Pretoria

South Africa’s four largest metropolitan municipalities will soon implement electricity tariff increases, mostly in line with Eskom’s 9.01% hike in bulk electricity prices.

The National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) recently published the approved tariff applications and cost-of-supply studies for 162 municipalities on its website.

These tariffs will take effect from 1 July 2026, the start of municipal financial years in South Africa, and remain in effect until 30 June 2027.

MyBroadband analysed the tariff increases on the most common single-phase connections in the four largest metros: Johannesburg, Cape Town, Ethekwini, and Tshwane.

The metros have widely varying electricity pricing policies. Ethekwini has the simplest tariff structure but also the highest variable energy charge of R3.77 per kilowatt-hour (kWh).

This applies to nearly all residential prepaid and postpaid users in Ethekwini with a single-phase connection. The tariff will increase by 10.5% to R4.17 per kWh on 1 July 2026.

Unlike the other metros, Ethekwini does not use the Incline Block Tariff structure. Therefore, customers don’t pay more for energy if they breach certain monthly usage thresholds.

Tshwane has the second-highest variable energy charge of the four big metros. It starts at R3.42 per kWh of energy for the first 100kWh consumed.

That goes up to R4.70 for any energy consumed after 650kWh. If its tariff application is approved, it will be the first major metro to charge residents over R5 per kWh.

While their variable energy charges may be high, the upside for Ethekwini and Tshwane residential electricity users is that they do not pay any fixed charges.

That meant low- to moderate-electricity users in these two cities paid substantially less per month than those in other metros.

Municipalities have increasingly shifted to cost recovery through fixed charges, replicating Eskom’s retail tariff plan, which began rolling out in 2025.

Joburg and Cape Town increasing fixed fees

In the City of Johannesburg, there are different fixed and variable energy charges for prepaid and postpaid electricity users.

For prepaid customers, the combined fixed capacity and service charges currently amount to R230 per month.

That will increase to R241.50 from 1 July 2026, amounting to a relatively small, but still above inflation, 5% increase.

Postpaid residential customers with single-phase 60-amp connections will continue to pay about R1,070 in fixed fees. Those with 80-amp connections will pay R1,483, compared to the current R1,360.

These high fixed charges have been a sore point for grid-tied solar power users, who were forced to the postpaid tariff when registering their systems.

Meanwhile, energy charges for both prepaid and postpaid customers were increasing by roughly 9% on 1 July 2026.

The City of Cape Town is increasing its fixed charge for Home User customers, which are all those in properties worth more than R1 million, by 8.55%.

The current charge of R390.87 will increase to R424.30. In addition, the Block 1 tariff for the first 600kWh of consumption is increasing by 5.42% to R3.43 per kWh.

The Block 2 tariff for consumption over 600kWh will increase by 6.16% to R4.69. The city also introduced a new optional time-of-use tariff.

This plan can be especially beneficial for customers who can shift their demand, such as households with battery backup systems or those who consume most of their energy outside typical peak hours.

On this plan, the peak energy tariff can reach as high as R8.98 per kWh in the winter, while the off-peak tariff is R3.01 throughout the year.

Electricity price changes in the four biggest metros in South Africa

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