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"The Freedom Front Plus is shocked and disappointed with the increase that Nersa has granted Eskom. It is scandalous that Nersa, despite the various submissions and sensible recommendations that were made, still decided to allow an increase of 24,8% for 2010 (from April), 25,8% for 2011 and 25,9% for 2012," Adv Anton Alberts, FF Plus parliamentary spokesperson on energy, reacted.

"It is in principle wrong that the mistakes attributable to the government and Eskom are imposed on the consumer. This price hike will effectively take the bread out of the mouths of the poor and middle classes. The lack of future planning and implementation is the essence of South Africa's energy problems and it would have been better to have placed an interim moratorium on any price hikes until a team of experts or the National Planning Commission developed a meta-energy plan that would have given birth to a sustainable and affordable strategy that could be implemented now and in the future. In the interim, Eskom's only shareholder, the government, could have funded Eskom to keep the lights burning. Eskom is after all an utility company that must be funded by the state to the benefit of the public. Therefore, the obligation to fund Eskom lies more with government than with the consumer, who is now being punished for the mistakes of the government and ESKOM," Alberts added.

"We will have to see what the effect of the price hike on the economy will be. The Freedom Front Plus this week submitted parliamentary questions to the Minister of Energy wherein the Minister is asked as to why more time is not permitted to draft and implement a meta-energy plan and whether White and Coloured employees that lost their jobs at ESKOM due to affirmative action can be considered for the 105 vacant positions in ESKOM."

"It is disappointing that a directionless and floundering government is once again abusing the consumer to fix its own wrongs. This has to stop and the Freedom Front Plus will continue to address this issue," Alberts said.