Oct 09, 2025 (Scrolla/All Africa Global Media via COMTEX) --
South African households pay R3,600 per megawatt-hour for electricity which is higher than the US and almost as much as Japan. Eskom says people still underpay, but experts blame corruption, high salaries and waste for driving electricity costs up year after year.
South Africans are paying some of the highest electricity prices in the world - and it's only going to get worse.
Since 2007, Eskom has raised power tariffs by 800%, and new hikes of 9% are already planned for both 2026 and 2027.
Independent energy analyst Pieter Jordaan says South African households now pay the seventh highest electricity prices in the G20, about $186 (R3,600) per megawatt-hour (MWh). That's more expensive than in the United States and just below Japan, BusinessTech reported.
Only a few countries, like Italy where electricity costs $422/MWh, are worse.
Strangely, South Africa's businesses have it easier. Commercial users pay $93/MWh, making it one of the cheapest rates in the G20. In most countries, companies pay more than households, but here, it's the opposite.
Eskom claims ordinary people still pay too little for electricity. But critics say the real problem is inside the power utility - pointing to inflated salaries, corruption and wasteful contracts that drive prices higher for everyone.
Jordaan compared power prices using a version of the Big Mac Index, showing how many burgers people could buy for the same price as 1MWh of electricity.
In South Africa, it equals just 67 Big Macs which is the same as Italy.
He also calculated how long people must work to afford 1MWh of power. For South Africans, it's 11.3 days, compared to 0.8 days in the US and half a day in Saudi Arabia.
Businesses fare slightly better, needing 5.4 working days for the same amount.
COMTEX_469388229/2029/2025-10-09T07:32:12
by Dylan Bettencourt
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