"There are now over 12.3 million electricity accounts in South Africa. By comparison there are only 1.8 million mortgage accounts in South Africa.
"This means that the effect of an electricity price hike is felt by 6.7 times more by consumers," Schussler said.
SHOOT: South Africa needs to take energy issues seriously, not just electricity, and perhaps the Eskom debacle will initiate this process.
SA could have most expensive power
South Africa could have the world's most expensive electricity if Eskom gets it tariff increases, an economist said today.
"We keep being told that we have the cheapest electricity in the world and this is not the case. Let's start calling Eskom's prices the most expensive in the world and change the public's mindset."
From 2005 up to the present, electricity prices had increased 91 percent, while inflation rose only 35 percent over the same period.
Schussler said electricity prices were set to increase around 200 percent over the next five years.
"This means that between 2005 and 2014 electricity prices on the current proposal would have increased 633 percent."
"Eskom had a revenue of over R53.6 billion in the year to March 2009 while municipalities' gross revenue from electricity was about R32.9 billion for the same period."
That, he said, was a total R86.5 billion or around 3.7 percent of gross domestic product.
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