{"id":644590,"date":"2026-05-03T17:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-03T15:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=644590"},"modified":"2026-05-03T17:17:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-03T15:17:13","slug":"eskom-accused-of-dirty-tricks-with-new-business-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/energy\/644590-eskom-accused-of-dirty-tricks-with-new-business-in-south-africa.html","title":{"rendered":"Eskom accused of dirty tricks with new business in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Eskom’s entry into the public electric vehicle (EV) charging industry has raised concerns among private charge point operators, who allege abuse of its position as the country’s dominant electricity distributor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The power utility launched its EV charging pilot in August 2024, initially installing 10 charging stations across five of its own properties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It explained the rollout was in preparation for the electrification of its vehicle fleet and its commitment to supporting the local e-mobility sector. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In September 2025, Eskom unveiled its first fleet of 20 EVs and announced it would roll out 55 public EV charging stations over two years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Later that same month, Eskom announced it had signed a memorandum of cooperation with BYD Auto South Africa to explore expanding public charging infrastructure in key locations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MyBroadband recently received a photo from a reader of an Eskom-branded EV charger deployed at the Pavilion Shopping Centre in Durban. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A source in the industry told MyBroadband that Eskom’s entry into the public charging sector was great for EV drivers, but it could present a major business risk for private charge point operators (CPOs).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They explained that Eskom was in a position to offer properties specific tariff deals for electricity if they agreed to install its chargers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They were also worried that the power utility might impose punitive charges on property owners who did not want to install chargers or who preferred other CPOs’ solutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“They are basically approaching it like ‘let us put a charger here, and we’ll play nice and provide nice tariffs, or we’ll do the inverse if you don’t allow us,'” the source alleged. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The source said one CPO’s proposal at a mall in Cape Town was delayed after Eskom entered the picture and presented such a deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eskom is no stranger to special tariffs<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Eskom DC fast charging station at the Pavilion Shopping Centre in Durban<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It would not be unprecedented for Eskom to give certain businesses preferential tariffs, especially in cases where it would be financially beneficial to the utility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, Eskom entered into Negotiated Price Agreements (NPAs) with several aluminium and ferrochrome smelters in recent years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These controversial deals gave the smelters much lower electricity tariffs than the average household and business in South Africa pays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the case of the most recent NPA signed with Samancor Chrome and Glencore Merafe, Eskom offered a rate of 62 cents per kilowatt-hour, a seventh of the price its average Homepower 4 user pays.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eskom, the government, and the companies benefiting from the NPAs have defended the agreements as necessary to save thousands of jobs and economic activity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, energy expert Chris Yelland has questioned<\/a> whether the broader economic impact of subsidising discounted tariffs with revenue from other users, who pay standard rates, was worse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yelland also highlighted that the mandate of the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) included ensuring that Eskom implemented non-discriminatory pricing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It seemed unlikely that Nersa would look kindly on Eskom offering special reduced-tariff deals to specific commercial property owners, some of whom might already have chargers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Property owners who agree to roll out Eskom’s chargers might be willing to pass on the savings from the discounted rate to end-users, making their chargers more attractive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eskom is already benefiting from the usage of most public charging stations, which get their electricity from the power utility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, many businesses have reduced their reliance on Eskom’s electricity by supplementing their demand with rooftop solar generation, which the power utility might want to discourage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MyBroadband asked Eskom for comment about the allegations, but it did not provide feedback by the time of publication.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Eskom’s entry into the public electric vehicle (EV) charging industry has drawn concern from private charge point operators (CPOs), alleging abuse of its position as the country’s top electricity distributor.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341042,"featured_media":556798,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27995,29366],"tags":[10034,31960,67290,181,88598,96017],"class_list":["post-644590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-energy","category-motoring","tag-chris-yelland","tag-electric-cars","tag-electric-vehicles-evs","tag-eskom","tag-ev-charging","tag-public-ev-charging"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644590"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341042"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=644590"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644590\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":644785,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644590\/revisions\/644785"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/556798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=644590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=644590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=644590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}