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INLSA<\/p>\n
Gillitts pensioners Rosemarie and Alan Smaldon have paid close attention to electricity price rises over the years. From 2009 to this year their electricity bill has increased by 78 percent. Picture: Zanele Zulu<\/p>\n
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Durban – Pensioners Alan and Rosemarie Smaldon count their pennies carefully, ensuring that each is spent wisely, to stretch their money as far as it can go. <\/p>\n
But, with the announcement on Thursday that Nersa had approved an 8 percent electricity increase each year for the next five years, the couple are looking to the future with apprehension, unsure how they – and others on fixed incomes – will cope with not only the price hike, but also its effect on everyday living costs. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe price of petrol and food is going to increase and I don\u2019t know what\u2019s going to happen. We are already very conscious of what we spend,\u201d said Alan Smaldon. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\u201cFor those on limited incomes it is going to be horrendous. Everyone is going to have to be as economical and thrifty as possible.\u201d <\/p>\n
As chairman of the Outer West Ratepayers\u2019 Association, Smaldon keeps a close watch on his spending and bills, saying he has to be on top of changes that affect residents. <\/p>\n
He said that in 2005 he and his wife were using about 440 kilowatts a month, but in 2008 they installed solar heating in their three-bedroom home in Gillitts. Their average use that year dropped to 265kW. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe solar heating has helped tremendously,\u201d said Smaldon. \u201cIt cost us R10 800 to put it in but that was before it became the rage. I believe now it can cost R20 000 to R30 000.\u201d <\/p>\n
Even though the couple\u2019s electricity bill can be considered low when compared to that of the average family, they have still watched it climb every year. Smaldon said that had the solar heating not been installed, they would be paying almost double each month. <\/p>\n
Their average monthly bill for the past five years has been: <\/p>\n
– 2009 – R140 <\/p>\n
– 2010 – R160 <\/p>\n
– 2011 – R190 <\/p>\n
– 2012 – R200 <\/p>\n
– 2013 – R250 <\/p>\n
From 2009 to this year, their electricity bill has increased 78 percent. <\/p>\n
The Mercury<\/strong> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" INLSA Gillitts pensioners Rosemarie and Alan Smaldon have paid close attention to electricity price rises over the years. From 2009 to this year their electricity bill has increased by 78 percent. Picture: Zanele Zulu Durban – Pensioners Alan and Rosemarie Smaldon count their pennies carefully, ensuring that each is spent wisely, to stretch their money […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[8275,953,2143],"class_list":{"0":"post-18542","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-south-africa","7":"tag-durban","8":"tag-newspaper","9":"tag-the-mercury","10":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18542"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18542\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}