{"id":653089,"date":"2026-06-15T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=653089"},"modified":"2026-06-15T07:39:53","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T05:39:53","slug":"big-change-for-south-african-cities-with-the-most-expensive-electricity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/energy\/653089-big-change-for-south-african-cities-with-the-most-expensive-electricity.html","title":{"rendered":"Big change for South African cities with the most expensive electricity"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Electricity tariffs in the City of Cape Town will become far more affordable relative to those of other major municipalities from 1 July 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

MyBroadband analysed tariff changes across 12 major municipalities and 23 tariff plans and found that most were closely aligned with Eskom’s adjustments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Customers with single-phase 80A connections using conventional meters will pay around R3,734 a month for their power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These high bills are primarily due to fixed basic and service charges of more than R1,000, substantially higher than in other municipalities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Good news for Cape Town residents<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The most affordable municipality among the major authorities was Mogale City, which governs several West Rand cities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cape Town increased its fixed charge for Home User prepaid and Postpaid customers by 8.55%, only slightly lower than Eskom’s wholesale increase.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Average electricity bills in 12 major metros and cities in South Africa <\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Municipal rank (from most to least expensive)<\/th>Municipality<\/th>Tariff plan<\/th>Tariff rank<\/th>Monthly cost for 656kWh usage from 1 July 2026<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
1<\/td>Johannesburg
(City Power)<\/td>		Residential Single Phase 80A postpaid<\/td>1<\/td>R3,733.66 <\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
2<\/td>KuGompo\/East London
(Buffalo City)<\/td>		Scale 1A Domestic Credit <\/td>2<\/td>R3,526.06 <\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
<\/td>Johannesburg
(City Power)<\/td>		Residential Single Phase 60A postpaid<\/td>3<\/td>R3,320.97 <\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
<\/td>KuGompo\/East London
(Buffalo City)<\/td>		Scale 1B Prepaid Non-Indigent <\/td>4<\/td>R3,197.92 <\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
3<\/td>Gqeberha
(Nelson Mandela Bay)<\/td>		Non-ATTP Domestic Prepaid <\/td>5<\/td>R3,050.10 <\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
<\/td>Gqeberha
(Nelson Mandela Bay)<\/td>		Non-ATTP domestic postpaid (Scale 31\u201336)<\/td>6<\/td>R3,050.09<\/strong> <\/td><\/tr>
4<\/td>East Rand
(Ekurhuleni)<\/td>		Tariff B Residential 3-phase<\/td>7<\/td>R3,028.79<\/strong> <\/td><\/tr>
<\/td>East Rand
(Ekurhuleni)<\/td>		Tariff B Residential 1-phase<\/td>8<\/td>R2,910.81<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
5<\/td>City of Tshwane<\/td>Residential prepaid and postpaid<\/td>9<\/td>R2,900.26 <\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
6<\/td>Mangaung\/Bloemfontein
(Centlec)<\/td>		Homeflex 1-Phase time-of-use<\/td>10<\/td>R2,907.37 <\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
7<\/td>Nelspruit
(City of Mbombela)<\/td>		Residential prepaid and postpaid<\/td>11<\/td>R2,851.13<\/strong> <\/td><\/tr>
8<\/td>City of Cape Town<\/td>Domestic postpaid
(Homes valued over R1 million)<\/td>		12<\/td>R2,747.76<\/strong> <\/td><\/tr>
<\/td>City of Cape Town<\/td>Domestic prepaid (Homes valued over R1 million)<\/td>13<\/td>R2,746.79<\/strong> <\/td><\/tr>
9<\/td>Durban(Ethekwini)<\/td>All residential electricity users<\/td>14<\/td>R2,734.88<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
<\/td>City of Cape Town<\/td>Home User
(Homes valued under R1 million)<\/td>		15<\/td>R2,736.28 <\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
10<\/td>Polokwane<\/td>Tariff B 3-phase domestic<\/td>16<\/td>R2,676.64<\/strong> <\/td><\/tr>
<\/td>Polokwane<\/td>Tariff A single phase domestic<\/td>17<\/td>R2,668.56 <\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
<\/td>Johannesburg<\/td>Residential prepaid high current<\/td>18<\/td>R2,666.41 <\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
<\/td>Mangaung\/Bloemfontein
(Centlec)<\/td>		IBT Domestic prepaid and postpaid<\/td>19<\/td>R2,516.91 <\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
11<\/td>Kimberley
Sol Plaatje <\/td>		Domestic IBT prepaid and postpaid<\/td>20<\/td>R2,422.05 <\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
12<\/td>Mogale City
(West Rand)<\/td>		T2 Domestic Standard postpaid<\/td>21<\/td>R2,418.72 <\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
<\/td>East Rand
(Ekurhuleni)<\/td>		Tariff A.2 residential non-Indigents low income<\/td>22<\/td>R2,311.08<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
<\/td>Mogale City
(West Rand)<\/td>		T2 domestic standard prepaid<\/td>23<\/td>R1,942.62 <\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While all the major metros and municipalities in South Africa are increasing electricity tariffs from 1 July, power will be come much more affordable in one relative to the others. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341042,"featured_media":649346,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27995],"tags":[58558,87503,3616,10734,20973,10216,96526,54269,2776,28392,59903,181,87501,72894,20769,105822,17510,96525,23173,105825,26364,37481,70984,20965],"class_list":["post-653089","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-energy","tag-bloemfontein","tag-buffalo-city","tag-cape-town","tag-city-of-cape-town","tag-city-of-tshwane","tag-city-power","tag-durban-2","tag-east-london","tag-ekurhuleni","tag-electricity-prices","tag-electricity-tariffs","tag-eskom","tag-ethekwini","tag-gqeberha","tag-johannesburg","tag-kugompo","tag-mangaung","tag-mbombela","tag-mogale-city","tag-municipal-electricity","tag-municipalities","tag-nelson-mandela-bay","tag-nelspruit","tag-tshwane"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653089"}],"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=653089"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653089\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":654060,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653089\/revisions\/654060"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/649346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=653089"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=653089"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=653089"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}