Speaking in an interview with Newzroom Afrika , Marokane said Eskom has accepted it must "live within" annual increases of less than 10 to support South Africa's economic recovery. Annual consumer price inflation in July was 3.5.
"We are certain that we will be asking nothing more than a single-digit increase going forward," Marokane said. "That requires us to do a lot internally in terms of driving cost efficiencies. We are revisiting procurement, compressing costs and renegotiating with suppliers to make sure we remain sustainable while keeping electricity affordable."
However, Marokane acknowledged that Eskom will seek to recover R54-billion after energy regulator Nersa's recent regulatory blunder, which led it to underestimating the utility's revenue requirement by R54-billion over three years. That error, for which Nersa has apologised, will be passed on to electricity users.