ISITHEMBISO ESINGAGCINWANGA SOKWENZA UMBANE ONGABIZI MALI ENINZI KUMNTU WONKE

This briefing by the Public Affairs Research Institute examines the failure of the South African government to provide affordable electricity to low-income households despite the Energy Act of 1998. It highlights the systemic failure of the Free Basic Electricity (FBE) policy, where national budget allocations for poor households are not reaching the intended beneficiaries due to municipal mismanagement and registration barriers.

• The Energy Act of 1998 aimed to promote affordable energy services for low-income households, small businesses, and supporting farms, but this promise remains unfulfilled over 20 years later.
• Low-income households in South Africa spend a disproportionately high percentage of their income on electricity compared to wealthy households, with some spending up to 17 percent.
• The Free Basic Electricity (FBE) policy, established in 2003 to provide 50 kWh of free electricity per month, is poorly implemented. In 2019, while the national budget provided funding for 9.8 million households to receive basic services, only 2 million households actually received free basic electricity from their local municipalities.
• Approximately 2.5 million poor households in South Africa are ineligible for free electricity because they are not officially connected to the grid. The total value of missing free electricity and the resulting out-of-pocket costs for poor households was estimated at 6 billion in 2019.
• The failure to provide affordable electricity forces poor households to use dangerous and polluting energy sources, such as paraffin and coal, which contributes to child mortality due to indoor air pollution.

APA

Ledger, T. (2021). ISITHEMBISO ESINGAGCINWANGA SOKWENZA UMBANE ONGABIZI MALI ENINZI KUMNTU WONKE. Public Affairs Research Institute. https://pari.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/CBXhosaNew.pdf

Chicago

Ledger, Tracy. ISITHEMBISO ESINGAGCINWANGA SOKWENZA UMBANE ONGABIZI MALI ENINZI KUMNTU WONKE. Public Affairs Research Institute, 2021. https://pari.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/CBXhosaNew.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Ledger |first1=Tracy |title=ISITHEMBISO ESINGAGCINWANGA SOKWENZA UMBANE ONGABIZI MALI ENINZI KUMNTU WONKE |publisher=Public Affairs Research Institute |date=April 2021 |url=https://pari.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/CBXhosaNew.pdf |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{ledger2021isithembiso, author = {Ledger, Tracy}, title = {{ISITHEMBISO ESINGAGCINWANGA SOKWENZA UMBANE ONGABIZI MALI ENINZI KUMNTU WONKE}}, institution = {Public Affairs Research Institute}, year = {2021}, month = apr, url = {https://pari.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/CBXhosaNew.pdf}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }