A Cold Dark Winter Awaits Cape Town as Rates and Electricity Prices Increases Again

Written on March 31, 2009 – 8:31 am | by Glass Pearl |

For all we know Earth Hour will be taking place quite frequently in Cape Town from 1 July.

Our electricity rates are going up by 33.9% from that day, making electricity almost a luxury.

We understand the reasoning behind the increase – we’ve heard it all before. Eskom blah blah blah. Whatever!

What I don’t understand is the logic behind putting prices up in winter.

Kown to be the coldest harshest months of the year, especially in Cape Town.

Why not start in summer or spring or even autumn, when we’re all still positively glowing in the sunshine? Bad news in summer is still bad news, but at least we are less likely to go into deep depression when the sun is shining.

Come 1July will we be trying to stay at work as long as possible to stay warm for free?

Many of us are already trying to save as much electricity as is humanly possible. Should there not be some incentive for people who use less electricity?

I guess the attempt is no longer to get us to use less electricity, because we are already doing so. The goal is just to get us to pay more for the electricity we already use!