State-owned utility Eskom’s proposed tariff increases would cost some 150 000 direct mining jobs, all but eliminate the gold sector and, as a consequence, reduce Eskom’s mining client base by around 36%, thereby exacerbating the utility’s “death spiral”, Minerals Council South Africa chief economist Henk Langenhoven said on Wednesday. The National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) is currently holding public hearings across the country to gather input into the power utility’s request for a 15% a year increase in electricity tariffs for the next three years.
