Big change for South African cities with the most expensive electricity
Electricity tariffs in the City of Cape Town will become far more affordable relative to those of other major municipalities from 1 July 2026.
The National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) recently announced it had completed the approval of electricity tariff adjustment applications of all municipal and private electricity distributors.
While Eskom already applied its 8.74% increases for direct customers in April 2026, its bulk electricity changes for municipalities only take effect in July of each year, aligning with their financial years.
On average, Eskom is increasing municipal bulk electricity tariffs by 9.01% from 1 July 2026. However, each municipality can apply different increases based on its own cost-of-supply study.
MyBroadband analysed tariff changes across 12 major municipalities and 23 tariff plans and found that most were closely aligned with Eskom’s adjustments.
We used the new tariffs to calculate how much a household in each of these municipalities would pay if they consumed 656kWh of energy per month, Eskom’s average on its most common residential plan.
After electricity tariff adjustments next month, Johannesburg’s City Power will remain the metro with the highest residential postpaid power prices among major municipalities in South Africa.
Customers with single-phase 80A connections using conventional meters will pay around R3,734 a month for their power.
That will be over R200 more than the next most expensive postpaid bill in KuGompo, formerly East London, which is governed by the Buffalo City metro.
Johannesburg’s 60A single-phase homes will pay R3,321, the third-most expensive bill on any residential tariff plan of the municipalities included in our comparison.
These high bills are primarily due to fixed basic and service charges of more than R1,000, substantially higher than in other municipalities.
Prepaid users in Johannesburg will pay about R2,666, which was the 18th-cheapest bill overall. Buffalo City and Nelson Mandela Bay, Gqeberha, will remain the most expensive for prepaid users.
Good news for Cape Town residents
The most affordable municipality among the major authorities was Mogale City, which governs several West Rand cities.
A conventional electricity bill for 656kWh of usage will cost about R2,419, while a prepaid customer in the city will pay R1,943, 39% less than in the most expensive city.
The biggest change compared to previous years’ analyses was that Cape Town dropped from the second-most expensive to the fifth-most affordable municipality for electricity.
Cape Town increased its fixed charge for Home User prepaid and Postpaid customers by 8.55%, only slightly lower than Eskom’s wholesale increase.
However, its variable energy charges were increased by only 5.42% for the first 600kWh and 6.16% for usage thereafter, much lower increases than in other municipalities.
Average electricity bills in 12 major metros and cities in South Africa
| Municipal rank (from most to least expensive) | Municipality | Tariff plan | Tariff rank | Monthly cost for 656kWh usage from 1 July 2026 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Johannesburg (City Power) | Residential Single Phase 80A postpaid | 1 | R3,733.66 |
| 2 | KuGompo/East London (Buffalo City) | Scale 1A Domestic Credit | 2 | R3,526.06 |
| Johannesburg (City Power) | Residential Single Phase 60A postpaid | 3 | R3,320.97 | |
| KuGompo/East London (Buffalo City) | Scale 1B Prepaid Non-Indigent | 4 | R3,197.92 | |
| 3 | Gqeberha (Nelson Mandela Bay) | Non-ATTP Domestic Prepaid | 5 | R3,050.10 |
| Gqeberha (Nelson Mandela Bay) | Non-ATTP domestic postpaid (Scale 31–36) | 6 | R3,050.09 | |
| 4 | East Rand (Ekurhuleni) | Tariff B Residential 3-phase | 7 | R3,028.79 |
| East Rand (Ekurhuleni) | Tariff B Residential 1-phase | 8 | R2,910.81 | |
| 5 | City of Tshwane | Residential prepaid and postpaid | 9 | R2,900.26 |
| 6 | Mangaung/Bloemfontein (Centlec) | Homeflex 1-Phase time-of-use | 10 | R2,907.37 |
| 7 | Nelspruit (City of Mbombela) | Residential prepaid and postpaid | 11 | R2,851.13 |
| 8 | City of Cape Town | Domestic postpaid (Homes valued over R1 million) | 12 | R2,747.76 |
| City of Cape Town | Domestic prepaid (Homes valued over R1 million) | 13 | R2,746.79 | |
| 9 | Durban(Ethekwini) | All residential electricity users | 14 | R2,734.88 |
| City of Cape Town | Home User (Homes valued under R1 million) | 15 | R2,736.28 | |
| 10 | Polokwane | Tariff B 3-phase domestic | 16 | R2,676.64 |
| Polokwane | Tariff A single phase domestic | 17 | R2,668.56 | |
| Johannesburg | Residential prepaid high current | 18 | R2,666.41 | |
| Mangaung/Bloemfontein (Centlec) | IBT Domestic prepaid and postpaid | 19 | R2,516.91 | |
| 11 | Kimberley Sol Plaatje | Domestic IBT prepaid and postpaid | 20 | R2,422.05 |
| 12 | Mogale City (West Rand) | T2 Domestic Standard postpaid | 21 | R2,418.72 |
| East Rand (Ekurhuleni) | Tariff A.2 residential non-Indigents low income | 22 | R2,311.08 | |
| Mogale City (West Rand) | T2 domestic standard prepaid | 23 | R1,942.62 |
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