FINANCIAL RELIEF: Tariff retreat sets up Bay households for electricity credits
DA Eastern Cape leader Andrew Whitfield said the outcome extended beyond Nelson Mandela Bay and sent a message to municipalities across the country.
The Eastern Cape high court has ordered Nelson Mandela Bay municipality to restore the previous inclining block tariff structure, directing the municipality to implement the changes retrospectively from 1 July 2026 and credit affected consumers for the additional amounts they have already paid. The decision was made following an urgent legal challenge by the DA, who argued that scrapping the inclining block tariff resulted in substantially higher electricity costs for many households and that the impact of the change had not been properly disclosed during the public participation process.
The DA, led by Nelson Mandela Bay DA mayoral candidate Retief Odendaal, hailed the court's decision as a victory for residents struggling to afford their municipal bills, as the municipality had initially opposed the application but later agreed to settle Part A of the application dealing with the urgent relief.
Brief written by urgent.news from Daily Maverick's own syndicated text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
