TradeNobody in South Africa publishes an official electrician tariff. There is no regulated price. So the honest answer to “what should this cost?” is a range, plus an understanding of what moves you up and down inside it.
Below are indicative 2026 figures drawn from published South African price guides, and — more usefully — the reasons a quote lands where it does.
How to read these numbers. These are indicative ranges from SA price-comparison guides as at July 2026, not quotes and not a tariff. Real prices vary a lot by area, by the age and access of your property, and by the specific job. Use them to sanity-check a quote, not to argue an electrician down to a number you read on the internet.
Call-out fees
The call-out fee pays for the trip and the diagnosis — the electrician’s time getting to you and working out what is wrong. It is not the repair.
| Indicative range (2026) | |
|---|---|
| Standard call-out | R500 – R950 |
| Emergency / after-hours call-out | R600 – R900+ |
Sources: thirtyone.co.za electrician price guide (2026), which puts the national average call-out around R650; Procompare (2026) gives an emergency call-out fee of R600–R900.
Three questions worth asking on the phone, before anyone gets in a bakkie:
- Does the call-out include the first hour of work, or is it on top? Both models are common, and the difference is real money.
- Is it waived if I accept the quote? Many will.
- What is the after-hours rate, and when does “after hours” start? A 17:30 call-out can be priced very differently to a 16:30 one.
Regional differences are genuine: published guides consistently show Johannesburg and Sandton at the top of the range, with Pretoria, Centurion and the East Rand somewhat lower. If you are in an outlying area, expect travel to be priced in.
Hourly rates
| Indicative range (2026) | |
|---|---|
| Electrician, hourly | R400 – R800/hour |
| Common average | around R550 – R600/hour |
| Specialised / master installation electrician | can exceed R800/hour |
Sources: Procompare (2026) gives R400–R800/hour, averaging R600. Other SA guides put the range slightly lower, from about R350/hour for simple work. Materials are normally not included in an hourly rate.
The spread is not arbitrary. A single-phase tester doing a straightforward job is not priced like a master installation electrician diagnosing an intermittent earth leakage fault across a 40-year-old installation.
What common jobs cost
Indicative figures from Procompare’s 2026 electrician price guide:
| Job | Indicative price |
|---|---|
| Single light or plug point | R400 – R600 |
| Double plug point | R500 – R800 |
| Data cabling, per point | R700 – R1,100 (avg ~R900) |
| Electrical Certificate of Compliance | R900 – R1,900 (avg ~R1,400) |
| Rewiring a 3-bedroom house | R25,000 – R38,000 (avg ~R31,000) |
Things that are genuinely hard to price sight-unseen — and where you should be suspicious of a confident phone quote:
- Fault finding. “The lights trip when the kettle goes on” could be twenty minutes or two days. Ask for an hourly rate and a cap you both agree on before the diagnosis continues past it.
- DB board replacement. Depends entirely on the number of circuits, whether the board is surface or flush, and what the inspection uncovers behind it.
- Anything in a ceiling or a wall. Access is the hidden cost driver in electrical work.
What actually drives the price up
- Age of the property. Old installations hide surprises. Rubber-insulated wiring, no earthing on plug circuits, a DB board with no earth leakage — every one of those turns a small job into a bigger one.
- Access. Chasing a channel into a plastered brick wall, then making good and painting, costs more than surface trunking. Ceiling crawl space, a tiled roof, a double storey — all of it prices in.
- Distance. Travel is time, and time is the product.
- After hours. Nights, weekends and public holidays carry a premium, usually a substantial one.
- Materials. Copper cable, breakers, a decent DB board — these are real costs and they are normally billed on top of labour. Ask whether the quote is labour-only.
- Whether a certificate is needed. If the work is an addition or alteration to your installation, the law requires a certificate for that work (see below). That is part of the job, not an optional extra.
The CoC catch that changes the bill
This trips up more people than any other item on an electrical invoice.
Under regulation 7(4) of the Electrical Installation Regulations, when an addition or alteration is made to an installation, the owner “shall obtain a certificate of compliance for at least the addition or alteration.” A new circuit, a new DB, a solar or inverter installation — that is certifiable work.
And under regulation 9(3), if the electrician finds a fault or defect, they “shall refuse to issue such certificate until that fault or defect has been rectified.”
Which means: an honest electrician sometimes has to tell you the job got bigger. They are not inventing work. They are legally barred from certifying a defective installation. The dishonest version of this trade is not the one who tells you about the problem — it is the one who signs anyway.
Our full explainer: Electrical Certificate of Compliance (CoC) explained.
Five ways to not get overcharged
1. Get the quote in writing, itemised. Labour, materials, call-out, certificate, VAT. A one-line “electrical work — R6,500” is not a quote, it is a number. Itemisation is also what makes two quotes comparable.
2. Get two or three quotes for anything substantial. For a R600 plug point, three quotes is a waste of everyone’s day. For a R30,000 rewire, it is the single highest-return hour you will spend. Make sure each quote covers the same scope — most “wildly different” quotes are actually quotes for different jobs.
3. Never pay a large deposit for labour. Materials on a big job? Reasonable. The full amount up front, in cash, to a personal account, before anyone lifts a screwdriver? That is how people lose money. Pay against progress, and pay the business account whose name matches the registered business.
4. Check the registration before, not after. Only a registered person may issue a CoC — that is regulation 9(1), and it is not negotiable. Ask for the Department of Employment and Labour registration and the contractor registration. If they are affronted by the question, that is your answer. How to vet a tradie walks through every check.
5. Know your warranty. Section 57 of the Consumer Protection Act says a service provider “warrants every new or reconditioned part installed during any repair or maintenance work, and the labour required to install it, for a period of three months after the date of installation” (or longer, if they specify it in writing). That warranty is void if you misused the thing, and it doesn’t cover ordinary wear and tear — but it is yours by law, and you do not have to ask nicely for it.
Red flags on price
- A CoC quoted over the phone, same day, no inspection. Not possible to do lawfully. See regulation 9(2)–(3).
- Cash only, no invoice. No paper trail means no warranty, no recourse, no CoC.
- A quote far below every other quote. Sometimes it is a lean operator. Often it is a quote that excludes materials, excludes making good, excludes the certificate — and will be “corrected” once the wall is open.
- Pressure to decide today. Real electricians have work booked.
- No written scope. If it is not written down, you will be arguing about it later.
Getting it right
Price is the wrong first question. The first question is “is this person legally allowed to do this work and certify it?” — because an unqualified electrician is cheap right up until the moment they are the most expensive thing that ever happened to your house.
On TradeWhizz, an electrician is only marked verified once we have checked identity, the registered business, the statutory credential to issue a CoC under SANS 10142-1, and public-liability cover. That is what our verification actually means, and how a job runs end to end.
Browse electricians or describe your job and we will work out which trade you need.
Honest note: TradeWhizz is in early access and still onboarding professionals — listings may include samples while real pros are verified and added. The prices on this page are indicative ranges published by South African price-comparison guides as at July 2026, not quotes, not a tariff, and not a promise. Always get a written quote for your actual job.
