The National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) has convened its first tribunal sitting, formally activating its statutory powers to enforce compliance in the electricity sector and issuing default orders against five municipalities found to be in breach of regulatory requirements.

Nersa said the tribunal sat on December 18, 2025, to hear matters of noncompliance by electricity licensees that had breached licence conditions and National Rationalised Specifications standards.

The sitting was held in terms of Electricity Regulation Act (ERA) amendments, which empower the regulator to act as a tribunal in enforcement proceedings.

The regulator said the tribunal marked a key step in operationalising its enhanced enforcement framework, noting that noncompliance by electricity licensees, including municipalities, would not be tolerated. The matters before the tribunal arose from systemic noncompliance identified through Nersa’s compliance audits across parts of the electricity distribution sector.

According to Nersa, the cases related to breaches of licence conditions, failures to meet applicable NRS standards, and contraventions of the Electricity Regulation Standards (ERS). These included the unlawful implementation of electricity outages, as well as broader weaknesses in the management and operation of municipal electricity distribution businesses.

Nersa said its audits had revealed persistent and material noncompliance by certain distribution licensees.

These findings included failures to ring-fence electricity distribution activities, non-payment of bulk electricity accounts, the absence or non-implementation of maintenance plans, noncompliance with quality of supply and quality of service requirements, failures to meet occupational health and safety obligations and the implementation of supply interruptions and outages in ways that were inconsistent with regulatory standards and licence conditions.

In response, Nersa exercised its authority to hear noncompliance matters through the tribunal process and to issue enforcement directives where appropriate. The regulator said this included the issuing of noncompliance notices and instructions to affected licensees to take remedial action within specified time frames.

Eight matters were heard during the sitting. Default orders were granted against the Saldanha Bay, Rustenburg, Kareeberg and Lephalale local municipalities, as well as the Ekurhuleni metropolitan municipality.

Matters involving the Greater Taung, Phokwane and Ndlambe local municipalities were removed from the tribunal roll at the request of Nersa.

For matters that were concluded, Nersa said notices would be issued and served on the noncompliant municipalities, directing them to comply with licence conditions or the provisions of the ERA within two calendar months from the date of the notice.

Nersa cautioned that failure to comply with tribunal directives could result in escalation to adjudication. The regulator said it may impose administrative penalties of up to R2-million a day for each day that a contravention persists, until the violation is remedied.

The regulator said the operationalisation of the tribunal confirmed that compliance with electricity laws, licence conditions, technical standards and regulatory instruments was mandatory, and that enforcement action would be taken to protect the integrity of the electricity supply industry and ensure that consumers received safe, reliable and lawful electricity services.

Nersa said it would endeavour to ensure fair, transparent and procedurally sound enforcement processes, conducted in line with the tribunal rules, as gazetted, while holding market participants and public entities accountable within the regulatory framework.