The Democratic Alliance (DA) wants Parliament’s Electricity Portfolio Committee to reprimand the National Energy Regulator of South Africa’s (Nersa’s) leadership for what the party says is its ongoing “delinquent conduct”, highlighted by the recent court loss.

Last week, the Gauteng High Court, in Pretoria ruled that Nersa’s approval of the implementation of municipal electricity tariff hikes, without the use of proper cost studies and public participation processes, was unconstitutional.

DA spokesperson on Electricity and Energy Kevin Mileham said as South Africans were burdened by electricity price increases, the agency meant to protect electricity consumers against price-gouging, was “failing dismally” in its legal mandate.

“That the Gauteng High Court had to declare the Nersa process for approving 2025/26 municipal electricity tariffs as constitutionally invalid, is extremely embarrassing for Nersa,” he stated.

According to the court ruling, the energy regulator must announce Eskom’s latest tariffs at which municipalities must purchase power by January 31, 2026. The final decision regarding tariff applications must also be submitted to Nersa by March 2026 to allow sufficient time for proper public participation.

The judge issued a provisional order with a return date of November 18, requesting all interested parties, including all 158 municipalities, to submit reasons, if any, why these proposed timelines should not be approved.

Mileham said his party welcomed the new model.

“…the public must be given a proper opportunity to play a role in electricity tariffs, so that they cannot be imposed by Nersa on silenced residents,” he added.

Mileham said the ruling was a “damning indictment” of Nersa.

“Nersa has been repeatedly ordered to ensure tariffs are based on actual, efficient cost-of-supply, as required by the Electricity Regulation Act. Instead of complying, Nersa has simply invented new, equally unlawful ‘benchmarking’ and ‘assumption’ methods to avoid its legal duty,” he pointed out.

He said there were still no answers on the R54-billion “mistake” Nersa made in the calculation of this year’s tariffs, and now the public consultation process on the cost of supply had also been declared unconstitutional.

“Now is the time for Parliament to step in, and enforce accountability,” he said.

The party said it would closely monitor Nersa's compliance with this order.