City Council Must Come Clean On High Electricity Tariffs

THE past few days have witnessed an altercation between the Electricity Control Board (ECB) and the City of Windhoek on the question of high Municipal electricity tariffs.

Many consumers have noted, in recent months, exorbitantly high municipal accounts, particularly as far as charges for electricity are concerned, and the resultant disagreement on the cause between the ECB and the Windhoek Municipality now needs to be resolved in the interests of the City’s consumers. At a press conference in the capital yesterday, the ECB maintained that “the City of Windhoek is charging tariffs not approved by the ECB”, and that it was in fact overcharging consumers.”(T)he ECB authorised an effective tariff increase of 10.2 percent and the City of Windhoek effectively increased its tariffs with 14,7 per cent” said the ECB, adding that “the latter constitutes an average tariff increase of 11,9 per cent and not 8 per cent as stated by the City of Windhoek”.If this is in fact so, and of course to date the City of Windhoek disputes the claims of the ECB, the Council owes consumers an apology for what would then appear to be a blatant attempt to rip them off.The ECB further berated the Windhoek City Council for having included 1c/kWh in the billing of its customers (an approximate N$6 million additional annual income) to be ostensibly used for the ringfencing of its electricity business.ECB added it had rejected Municipal requests for equity contributions for the planned Central RED being passed onto consumers.This should not be the case, the ECB said, adding that the ringfencing, with the assistance of the ECB, had already been completed and ECB “sees no basis why this exorbitant amount for ringfencing should continue to be imposed on City of Windhoek consumers”.The City Council, in turn, disputes the ECB statements, saying it did not overcharge consumers.With most top City Council officials off attending an Africities summit in Nairobi, Windhoek City PR officer Liz Sibindi was left to defend what already seems like an indefensible stance of the Windhoek Municipality.The Municipality has also been in the news recently with regard to massive salary hikes for officials, and it is unacceptable that they apparently pass on the bill for these increases to the already hard-pressed consumers.Not only this, but they have surely created for themselves an administrative nightmare, because at some point the concerns of the consumers and the overcharged amounts will have to be dealt with and credited once the matter has been resolved.Only those customers with pre-paid electricity meters are unaffected by what seems to be a scam on the part of our City Council.The top officials will have to account for this publicly upon their return from Nairobi.And the consumers themselves must in due course exercise their rights as far as the re-election of the City’s office bearers are concerned.It is unacceptable that many of those they have voted into power have conveniently set aside the interests of the residents, even against the recommendations of the ECB.The public must demand that his matter be rectified, and soon, even if it is at the risk of disturbing the out-of-country travel of these top officials.We cannot allow this daylight robbery to continue.At a press conference in the capital yesterday, the ECB maintained that “the City of Windhoek is charging tariffs not approved by the ECB”, and that it was in fact overcharging consumers.”(T)he ECB authorised an effective tariff increase of 10.2 percent and the City of Windhoek effectively increased its tariffs with 14,7 per cent” said the ECB, adding that “the latter constitutes an average tariff increase of 11,9 per cent and not 8 per cent as stated by the City of Windhoek”.If this is in fact so, and of course to date the City of Windhoek disputes the claims of the ECB, the Council owes consumers an apology for what would then appear to be a blatant attempt to rip them off.The ECB further berated the Windhoek City Council for having included 1c/kWh in the billing of its customers (an approximate N$6 million additional annual income) to be ostensibly used for the ringfencing of its electricity business.ECB added it had rejected Municipal requests for equity contributions for the planned Central RED being passed onto consumers.This should not be the case, the ECB said, adding that the ringfencing, with the assistance of the ECB, had already been completed and ECB “sees no basis why this exorbitant amount for ringfencing should continue to be imposed on City of Windhoek consumers”.The City Council, in turn, disputes the ECB statements, saying it did not overcharge consumers.With most top City Council officials off attending an Africities summit in Nairobi, Windhoek City PR officer Liz Sibindi was left to defend what already seems like an indefensible stance of the Windhoek Municipality.The Municipality has also been in the news recently with regard to massive salary hikes for officials, and it is unacceptable that they apparently pass on the bill for these increases to the already hard-pressed consumers.Not only this, but they have surely created for themselves an administrative nightmare, because at some point the concerns of the consumers and the overcharged amounts will have to be dealt with and credited once the matter has been resolved.Only those customers with pre-paid electricity meters are unaffected by what seems to be a scam on the part of our City Council.The top officials will have to account for this publicly upon their return from Nairobi.And the consumers themselves must in due course exercise their rights as far as the re-election of the City’s office bearers are concerned.It is unacceptable that many of those they have voted into power have conveniently set aside the interests of the residents, even against the recommendations of the ECB.The public must demand that his matter be rectified, and soon, even if it is at the risk of disturbing the out-of-country travel of these top officials.We cannot allow this daylight robbery to continue.