Insights › Prepaid Utilities & Wallet

Ekurhuleni July 2026 utility tariff hikes explained

By Hennie Loubser, CA(SA), CFA, FPSA · 7 min read · Published 17 June 2026

From 1 July 2026 every City of Ekurhuleni household will pay more for water, electricity, sanitation and refuse — and Mosaic Wallet is built to absorb the shock.

On 28 May 2026 the City of Ekurhuleni’s MMC for Finance, Strategy and Corporate Planning and ICT, Jongizizwe Dlabathi, tabled an R71-billion FY2026/27 budget at the OR Tambo Government Precinct in Kempton Park. The accompanying tariff schedule, which takes effect from 01 July 2026, sets the rand impact for every household and sectional title scheme inside the metro. The headline increases are:

• Electricity: average 9.01% (Tariffs I, J and G linked to Eskom Municflex are increased by 8.76%);
• Water: 11%;
• Sanitation: 8.35%;
• Refuse removal: 3.7%;
• Property rates: 2%; and
• Burial and cemetery tariffs for Ekurhuleni residents: 0%.

Compared with the City of Johannesburg’s FY2026/27 tariff schedule, Ekurhuleni’s package is broadly more moderate on water and refuse but materially higher on electricity. For prepaid utility households — including every Mosaic Wallet resident in Boksburg, Benoni, Kempton Park, Edenvale, Germiston, Bedfordview, Alberton and surrounding areas — the rand impact is immediate, transparent and unavoidable. This article explains exactly what is changing, what the Schedule "2" Electricity Tariffs document confirms, and how Mosaic Wallet is structured to absorb the increases without disrupting household cash flow.

What the City of Ekurhuleni actually proposed

The 28 May 2026 budget speech confirmed the metro’s tariff package for the financial year. The electricity component — published as a separate Schedule "2" document signed off by the Head of Business Unit: Energy — carries the longest tail of structural changes and is the line item that lands hardest on prepaid wallet customers. A summary of the year-on-year position is set out below.

Year-on-year comparison

FY2026/27 is the slowest-rising tariff year that Ekurhuleni households have seen since FY2022/23, but the compounding effect remains material. A household paying R3,100 per month on combined CoE utilities in June 2025 will, on the same volume profile, pay roughly R3,800 by July 2026 — an effective 22% lift over twenty-four months before any consumption growth.

It is also important to note that, at the time of publication, the electricity tariff component remains subject to final approval by the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA) under the timelines that flow from the AfriForum NPC v NERSA, Eskom & SALGA High Court order. The City of Ekurhuleni was granted a court-approved deviation to submit its application to NERSA by 20 April 2026, with the regulator’s approval process running through the second half of FY2025/26. The percentages and rand values reflected below are the values published in the City’s draft Schedule "2" (version 2026.03.11) and the public-participation presentation by the Energy Business Unit.

Electricity — why the 9.01% headline masks structural change

On 4 March 2026 NERSA approved an effective average Eskom Retail Tariff Structural Adjustment (ERTSA) bulk-purchase cost increase of 9.01% to municipal entities for FY2026/27. The City of Ekurhuleni’s Energy Business Unit has aligned its proposed customer-facing average to the same 9.01%, with Tariffs I, J and G — the categories linked directly to Eskom Municflex — raised by 8.76% to mirror the Eskom Municflex movement. All other tariffs increase by up to 9.01% based on usage band.

The structural changes carry more weight for prepaid Mosaic Wallet households than the 9.01% headline suggests. Three changes matter directly:

1. Tariff A.1 (Indigent) — flat rate replaces inclining-block. The City has converted Tariff A.1 from an inclining-block tariff (IBT) to a flat kilowatt-hour rate, aligned with Eskom’s 60-Ampere Homelite rate. After the FBE-funded 50 kWh free, qualifying customers will now pay the same R2.9879 per kWh (excluding 15% VAT) for every additional unit consumed.
2. Tariff A.2 (Non-indigent, low-income) — flat rate, no basic charge. Tariff A.2 has also been converted from an IBT to a flat rate of R3.0635 per kWh (excluding VAT) across both High and Low Demand seasons, with no monthly basic charge. Customers consuming on average more than 750 kWh per month over a six-month period will be migrated to Tariff B Residential.
3. Tariff B (Residential Resellers) — demand and network access charges removed. Bulk residential reseller customers (sectional title complexes, body corporates, blocks of flats) revert to a basic charge plus a flat kilowatt-hour rate across all seasons and time-of-use periods. Demand and network access charge components are removed. Two voltage differentials apply: R3.6565/kWh at 230/400 V and R3.6283/kWh above 400 V (excluding VAT).

Selected residential tariff rates — FY2026/27

For a household using 600 kWh per month on Tariff B, an 8% to 9% lift in the energy rate translates into roughly R165 to R190 of additional monthly electricity spend before VAT, depending on which consumption profile applies. For background on how smart metering compresses the reconciliation lag between Eskom and municipal tariff cycles and on-property consumption, see our companion analysis on IoT utility metering and the future of community management in South Africa.

The City has also introduced new revenue-protection charges in the Miscellaneous Charges section of Schedule "2": a non-standard service-connection application fee, and a punitive charge equal to three times the City’s tariff value of any units obtained through fraudulent vending transactions. Moneyweb’s coverage of the metro’s parallel 2024/25 tariff redetermination flags the affordability and audit concerns that sit behind these revenue-protection measures.

Water and sanitation — 11% and 8.35%

The 11% water tariff increase is the second-largest line item in the household budget for FY2026/27, behind electricity. Sanitation, which is billed on a per-property basis linked to water consumption, rises by 8.35%. The R71-billion budget allocates R1.9 billion to water and sanitation maintenance and R707 million in capital expenditure for water and sanitation projects, including reservoir refurbishment and bulk water reticulation upgrades.

For sectional title schemes and homeowners’ associations, the sanitation line is typically the most under-recovered utility item, because it scales with the water meter rather than with the number of dwelling units. A scheme that recovers water at the bulk meter but flat-rates sanitation per unit will fall further behind on sanitation cost recovery from 1 July 2026, regardless of consumption growth. The Citizen (Alberton Record) sets out the full budget context.

Refuse, property rates and the 0% on burials

Pikitup-equivalent refuse removal in Ekurhuleni rises by 3.7%, well below the headline-inflation forecast for FY2026/27 and below the previous year’s 6.45% increase. Property rates rise by 2%, and burial and cemetery tariffs for registered Ekurhuleni residents have been held flat at a 0% increase. EWN reports that the moderation across these line items is intended to cushion lower-income residents while the City addresses the R2.5-billion electricity revenue-loss recovery exercise flagged in the budget speech.

The combined household impact — an illustrative monthly budget

Worked at the sectional-title scheme level, an estate of 120 units inside the City of Ekurhuleni carries roughly R34,500 of additional monthly utility recovery exposure from 1 July 2026 alone. Trustees and managing agents who under-recover on these line items at the start of the new tariff cycle compound an arrears problem that is structurally harder to recover later in the financial year.

How Mosaic Wallet absorbs the increase

Mosaic Wallet is a prepaid utility funding and consumption platform designed for South African households, sectional title schemes and rental portfolios. Three operational features matter directly inside the City of Ekurhuleni’s FY2026/27 tariff environment:

1. Real-time consumption visibility. Each Mosaic Wallet account shows daily water, electricity and gas consumption against the approved Schedule "2" tariff bands. A household that can see the moment it crosses out of the 50 kWh free-block on Tariff A.1, or breaches the 750 kWh six-month average that triggers migration from Tariff A.2 to Tariff B Residential, can change behaviour before the next billing cycle, not after the surprise.
2. One-tap PayShap top-ups. The Wallet accepts instant PayShap and EFT funding from any South African bank. Residents budget once at the start of the month, top up the Wallet, and the daily debit happens automatically at the prevailing metered rate — including the 1 July 2026 Ekurhuleni tariffs the moment they go live.
3. Per-property utility recovery. For landlords and sectional title schemes operating on Tariff B Residential Reseller, Mosaic Wallet records every kilowatt-hour and kilolitre at the meter and posts the matching rand value to the property ledger. Trustees and managing agents see the impact of the FY2026/27 increases the moment the new tariff goes live, with no manual reconciliation lag and full audit trail through the bulk-meter to dwelling-unit allocation.

For the broader operating model that sits behind the Wallet, see our pillar guide on prepaid utility management in Johannesburg and the Mosaic Wallet product page.

What residents and trustees should do before 1 July 2026

• Audit the May or June 2026 utility statement to baseline current consumption against the existing FY2025/26 Ekurhuleni tariffs.
• Apply the FY2026/27 percentage increases per line item to derive the expected July 2026 spend, paying particular attention to whether the household is on Tariff A.1, A.2, B Residential or H Residential Time-of-Use.
• For sectional title schemes operating on Tariff B Residential Reseller, raise the matter at the next trustee meeting and confirm that the levy-recovery rate, special-levy reserves and prepaid utility wallet funding policy account for the structural removal of the demand and network access charge components.
• For rental portfolios, update tenant-onboarding utility-funding guidance to reflect the new average household cost across Ekurhuleni’s residential tariffs.
• For Mosaic Wallet users, raise the recurring top-up amount on or before 1 July 2026 to prevent service-interruption events at the new tariff.

Frequently asked questions

Mosaic Home Services offers prepaid electricity, water and gas on a single wallet. Learn more about Mosaic Wallet.