BROKEN PROMISES

This briefing by the Public Affairs Research Institute (PARI) examines the failure of the South African government to fulfill its 1998 White Paper on Energy promise of affordable energy for all. It specifically highlights the systemic failure of the Free Basic Electricity (FBE) program, where billions of rands allocated for low-income households are not reaching the intended beneficiaries due to municipal mismanagement.

• The South African government's 1998 White Paper on Energy aimed to promote affordable energy services for poor households, small businesses, and small farms, but this goal remains unfulfilled 20 years later. Poor households now spend up to 17% of their income on energy, which is higher than the expenditure of wealthier households.
• The Free Basic Electricity (FBE) policy, introduced in 2003 to provide 50 kWh of free electricity per month (valued at under R100), is failing because millions of eligible households are not registered as poor by their municipalities. This forces low-income families to pay for electricity out of pocket, reducing funds available for other essentials like food.
• There is a significant gap between national budget allocations and actual service delivery. In 2019, the national budget provided funds for 9.8 million households to receive basic free services, including electricity, but only 2 million households actually received free basic electricity from their municipalities. Excluding 2.5 million households without electricity connections, approximately 5.4 million eligible poor households were denied the benefit.
• The financial loss resulting from the failure to distribute free electricity to eligible households amounted to R6 billion for the 2019 year alone. This represents the value of the free electricity not received and the money poor households had to spend from their own pockets.
• The failure of affordable energy access is attributed to two main factors: the government's failure to define 'affordable energy' with a specific price ceiling, and the administrative barriers created by municipalities that make it difficult for poor households to register for the FBE benefit.

APA

Ledger, T. (2021). BROKEN PROMISES. Public Affairs Research Institute. https://pari.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/CBSesothoNew.pdf

Chicago

Ledger, Tracy. BROKEN PROMISES. Public Affairs Research Institute, 2021. https://pari.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/CBSesothoNew.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Ledger |first1=Tracy |title=BROKEN PROMISES |publisher=Public Affairs Research Institute |date=2021 |url=https://pari.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/CBSesothoNew.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{ledger2021broken, author = {Ledger, Tracy}, title = {{BROKEN PROMISES}}, institution = {Public Affairs Research Institute}, year = {2021}, url = {https://pari.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/CBSesothoNew.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }