South Africa's powerful trade union movement threatened strikes and street protests unless the government rolled back electricity tariff increases announced today of 76.5 per cent over the next three years, according to dpa. The National Energy Regulator of South Africa approved electricity increases of 24.8 per cent this year, 25.8 per cent in 2011 and 25.9 per cent in 2012. State electricity supplier Eskom had asked for permission to hike its prices by 35 per cent a year for the next three years to fund a massive expansion programme. The company wants to spend 343 billion rand (around 44 billion dollars) over five years on increasing generating capacity to alleviate chronic power shortages. Two years ago, the country's gold mines ground to a halt and cities were plunged into darkness for long spells as electricity supply began to be surpassed by demand. Last year, the demand for energy eased as the country fell into recession and manufacturing output dropped. But the economy is growing again, making it urgent to bring increase generating capacity. Eskom's critics say the company is making ordinary citizens pay for its failure to plan in time for growing electricity demand. "These increases are more than four times the current rate of inflation and totally unacceptable," the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) said. If the government did not agree to foot the bill itself, the union would not hesitate to organize "strike action and protests in the street," COSATU, which is part of a tripartite alliance led by the African National Congress, said. The South African Communist Party, the other partner in the alliance, also blasted the increases as a "catastrophic betrayal of the poor of our country."
