Neil Roets, CEO of Debt Rescue, said the energy affordability crisis was unfolding alongside wider economic pressures.
“This crisis is unfolding against the backdrop of high unemployment, wages and salaries that are not keeping up with inflation, escalating food and petrol costs and soaring paraffin prices, placing unbearable financial pressure on already vulnerable households,” Roets said.
“For these families, paraffin is not an alternative option, it is a fundamental for survival. When the price of paraffin escalates to a point, as it has, where it becomes unaffordable, we are looking at a national emergency. It goes without saying that these households have long since not been able to afford electricity.”