RENDERED ‘POWERLESS’

Comment

The odds just keep piling up on the consumer with no end in sight. All thanks to the approval of an electricity price hike requested by Eswatini Electricity Company by the Eswatini Energy Regulatory Authority (ESERA) which has dealt a devastating blow to citizens and businesses alike.

If anything, it has made a mockery of the consultation exercise carried out countrywide where valid submissions against a hike were made.  It makes us wonder whether these consultations really matter.
ESERA says it considered the need for the utility to implement projects geared towards generating local energy supply and improving efficiency and reliability of electricity services.

This is not what we see. Our power utility EEC has generated super profits over years and is yet to demonstrate its prudence in managing its financial affairs. The money has instead, been channelled towards high staff salaries and tender battles that have dashed any hope of the consumer ever coming across a reduction in the cost of electricity in this country.

expensive

Currently, our electricity prices make us one of the most expensive in the SADC Region, which has rendered us unattractive to investment for over a decade.
Then we have a strategic road map that has placed a target of below 50 for Eswatini in the World Bank Ease of Doing Business Rankings by 2023 and beyond. This target just got more elusive. There may have been efforts to reduce corporate tax but we could easily place ourselves at an advantage with an equally lower power cost.

What government needs to understand is that it needs to revisit its priorities. Misallocation of resources has been a major let down in our infrastructure development programmes. Trying to fix this by sucking the life-blood out of the consumer can only lead to generating mass energy infrastructure that nobody can afford to use. 

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