Accessible and affordable electricity is a need and a crucial  building block for a Just Energy Transition (JET) in South Africa.

Millions of South Africans lack access to electricity. All South Africans need access to affordable, low carbon electricity to provide for basic needs.

When the South African government wrote the White Paper on Energy in 1998, the number one objective was the following:

“Government is committed to the promotion of access to affordable and sustainable energy services for small businesses, disadvantaged households, small farms, schools, clinics, in our rural areas and a wide range of other community establishments. As provided for in our Constitution, the state must establish a national energy policy which will ensure that the national energy resources shall be adequately tapped and developed to cater for the needs of the nation. Energy should therefore be available to all citizens at an affordable cost. Energy production and distribution should not only be sustainable, but should also lead to improvement of the standard of living for all of the country’s citizens. For this to become a reality, the state should ensure that energy production and utilisation are done with maximum efficiency at all times.”

Despite the governments commitment, so many people – predominantly in low-income urban and rural areas, and informal settlements – do not have access to many of the free basic services; in this case access to affordable, safe and clean energy. 

In a report written and published by Tracy Ledger from The Public Affairs Research Institute, “Broken Promises”, she unpacks how the affordable energy access goals of South Africa’s energy policy have been undermined.

So, what has gone wrong?

Firstly, Government has never set a standard for what “affordable energy” means, and Secondly, the Free Basic Electricity (FBE) policy that was put in place in 2003 has not been implemented as intended.

Our Campaign seeks to understand these issues with more depth – thankfully much of the information and research has been done by PARI and Dr. Ledger – before capacitating our communities and alongside them taking the best possible action that we can. 

Free Basic Services are municipal services provided at no charge by the Government to the registered indigents within municipal boundaries. The services include water, electricity, sanitation and waste removal.

Free Basic Electricity 

The Free Basic Electricity (FBE) Policy was put in place in 2003. It is the only tool to support households with their electricity needs by providing them with 50 kWh of free electricity every month. The money for this support comes from National Treasury and is given to local municipalities to implement the roll out of FBE to households in need.

FBE is part of a basket of free basic services (water, sanitation, refuse removal) provided by government which aims to improve the lives of the most vulnerable communities. In order to qualify for the basket of free basic services, a household must be classified as an indigent household or qualify for the pensioner’s rebate as per criteria determined by the local municipalities. This means there is no application form for FBE alone.