"South Africans are already battling high inflation, declining public services and escalating food prices, but will now receive the news that they are to face an exorbitant 18.6% increase in the price of electricity while in the grips of stage 6 load-shedding," says Mashaba in a statement.

"While our people are resilient and can withstand great adversity, it is difficult to remain optimistic when it is patently evident that the ANC government has no plan to end our energy crisis. A feasible solution has to be pursued because the South African ratepayer cannot continue to pay for the historical and persistent mismanagement of our power utility.

"We have now been besieged by load-shedding for 14 years, with the situation getting progressively worse. As we are forced to live with de facto semi-permanent rolling blackouts.

"The current situation is untenable. The people of South Africa, having come out of a nearly dilapidating lockdown, should not have to endure further hardship.

'Eskom needs to be depoliticised'

"Eskom needs to fix its operational challenges and introduce new generation capacity speedily. The running of Eskom needs to be depoliticized, and the engagement of independent power producers needs to continue with a sense of urgency. 

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