Empowering the Kwa-Madiba community

Abstract

The electrification of urban areas in South Africa, including many informal settlements, reached its culmination during recent years. However, the electrification of rural areas still has a long way to go before most of the rural communities will be provided with a reliable and sustainable electricity supply. The national electricity grid, managed by the parastatal ESKOM, has been experiencing problems due to various reasons, particularly since 2008. The further development of rural electrification is currently on the back burner, mainly due to the shortage in the generation capacity available to ESKOM, which needs to be made available to the users already connected to the national grid. The increases in the price of electricity are starting to be felt by urban and rural communities alike. The primary electricity infrastructure (coal-fired power stations, major supply lines and distribution of electricity within urban areas) is rapidly becoming insufficient and cannot sustain a supply against the demand for electricity from the existing and future users connected to the national grid.