Calls for action as bid for free basic electricity faces backlog of over 3 million households

While government has managed to provide electricity access to over 8 million households through the Free Basic Electricity programme, there are still shortcomings to the programme, with millions more households still without access.

During a roundtable discussion on the electrification programme, of which the origins were led by Eskom in 1991 and later endorsed by the governing ANC in 1994, several stakeholders relayed its successes and challenges that remain for universal energy access.

Lufuno Madzhie, director of project monitoring and intergovernmental relations at the Department of Mineral Resources and Energy, noted that 8.3 million households are electrified, with Eskom servicing 60% of them, while municipalities account for the rest.