South Africa’s electricity prices way above average — and more expensive than most of Africa

South Africa’s residential electricity prices are well above the average tariff in 144 countries and more expensive than in most African countries, according to GlobalPetrolPrices.

The vast majority of South Africa’s electricity supply comes from Eskom.

For many years from its founding and through the first decade of South Africa’s democracy, Eskom had among the cheapest electricity prices in the world.

Annual increases were generally well below inflation, and there was even a small price cut between 2003 and 2004.

That all changed in 2007, when the first load-shedding began.

Since then, most tariff hikes have significantly outpaced inflation, as Eskom’s service costs have ballooned due to increased usage of expensive emergency generation, growing municipal debt, and a surge in illegal connections.

Overall, electricity prices have jumped by more than 1,722% over the past three decades, compared with inflation of 451.9% over the same period.

South Africa has subsequently lost its claim to have among the world’s most affordable electricity prices, as shown in a comparative analysis compiled by GlobalPetrolPrices.com.

The website uses official sources, including utilities and energy regulators, to regularly compare electricity and fuel prices across countries.

According to its latest publicly available data on electricity prices, South Africa’s average per-kWh electricity tariff for households stood at roughly R3.29 by December 2023.

That amount is 16.2% higher than the average of R2.83 across 144 countries.

Overall, South Africa has the 95th most affordable electricity tariff. Viewed from the other side of the pack, it is the 54th most expensive.

The country’s tariff is also the second most expensive among the ten Southern African countries, beaten only by Zimbabwe’s.

In addition, it was interesting to note that South Africa’s electricity tariff was higher than that of many of its neighbours, including those that import a large amount of their power from Eskom.

For example, Botswana’s average electricity tariff is about R1.70, over 48% cheaper than South Africa’s.

That is despite the fact that roughly 71% of its electricity capacity comes from Eskom.

Eswatini, formerly Swaziland, is even more reliant on Eskom, with about 80% of its supply coming from the utility.

However, its average electricity tariff of R2.10 is still over 36% cheaper than South Africa’s.

The only neighbouring country with higher tariffs than South Africa is struggling Zimbabwe.

Considering that its economy and local currency value have been in dire straits for decades, its per-kWh tariff, which is roughly 50% more than South Africa’s, is perhaps not too dismal.

On the positive side, South African households generally pay less for electricity than those in developed countries in Europe — which have suffered high hikes in recent years, partly due to rising natural gas prices due to the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

The table below compares South Africa’s average electricity tariff with a selection of 30 other countries, including all Southern African countries.

More bad news on the horizon

GlobalPetrolPrices’ publicly-available data has not yet factored in Eskom’s price hikes for the current financial year, which were implemented for direct customers from April 2024 and municipal customers from July 2024.

Given that the increases were well above inflation, South Africa is likely to have moved even further down the ranking, assuming other countries’ hikes since then have been more closely aligned with inflation.

Eskom’s above-inflation hikes are expected to continue in the foreseeable future, with a particularly shocking adjustment potentially in the pipeline for next year.

Daily Maverick has obtained a confidential draft document detailing Eskom’s proposed electricity tariff adjustments from 2026 to 2028.

It showed that Eskom planned to apply to the National Energy Regulator of South Africa for a 36.15% hike in tariffs charged to direct customers in the 2025/2026 financial year and an astounding 43.55% higher charge to municipalities.

The graph below shows how Eskom’s electricity tariffs have increased since 1994, compared with what inflation-linked tariffs would have been.