DIE GEBROKE BELOFTE VAN BEKOSTIGBARE ENERGIE VIR ALMAL

This briefing by the Public Affairs Research Institute argues that South Africa has failed to deliver affordable energy to its poor. It highlights that poor households spend up to 17% of their income on energy and that the Free Basic Electricity (FBE) policy is failing; in 2019, only 2 million of the 9.8 million funded households actually received free electricity, leaving 5.4 million eligible households without support and costing them R6 billion.

• The South African government has failed to fulfill the objective established in the 1998 energy white paper to promote access to affordable energy services for previously disadvantaged households, small businesses, small-scale farmers, and community services.
• Poor households in South Africa spend a disproportionately high percentage of their income on energy, reaching up to 17 percent, which is significantly higher than the expenditure of wealthy households.
• The government has not established a clear standard or definition for 'affordable energy,' which has led to a lack of policies to limit electricity price increases and ensure affordability.
• The Free Basic Electricity (FBE) policy, introduced in 2003 to provide 50 kWh of free electricity per month (valued at just under R100), is severely under-implemented. In 2019, while the national budget provided funding for 9.8 million households to receive basic services, only 2 million households actually received the free basic electricity from their municipalities.
• Approximately 5.4 million poor households in South Africa were eligible for free electricity in 2019 but did not receive it, resulting in a loss of R6 billion in benefits that these households had to pay for out of pocket.

APA

Ledger, T. (2021). DIE GEBROKE BELOFTE VAN BEKOSTIGBARE ENERGIE VIR ALMAL. Public Affairs Research Institute. https://pari.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/CBAfrikaansNew.pdf

Chicago

Ledger, Tracy. DIE GEBROKE BELOFTE VAN BEKOSTIGBARE ENERGIE VIR ALMAL. Public Affairs Research Institute, 2021. https://pari.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/CBAfrikaansNew.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Ledger |first1=Tracy |title=DIE GEBROKE BELOFTE VAN BEKOSTIGBARE ENERGIE VIR ALMAL |publisher=Public Affairs Research Institute |date=April 2021 |url=https://pari.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/CBAfrikaansNew.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{ledger2021die, author = {Ledger, Tracy}, title = {{DIE GEBROKE BELOFTE VAN BEKOSTIGBARE ENERGIE VIR ALMAL}}, institution = {Public Affairs Research Institute}, year = {2021}, month = apr, url = {https://pari.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/CBAfrikaansNew.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }