South Africa: Joburg free electricity drive to include Eskom areas

The FBE programme offers 50kWh of free electricity monthly to qualifying indigent households in Joburg (and across South Africa)

The registration period for households in Johannesburg (Joburg), South Africa looking to apply for Free Basic Electricity (FBE) has been extended to 31 December and will now include informal settlements and areas that fall under Eskom’s electricity supply network.

City Power, the City of Joburg’s electricity utility, announced the extension recently – it is to allow more qualifying residents to benefit from the programme.

“This extension is in response to a growing demand and the need to ensure that no eligible resident is left behind as we target to register a total of 130,000 people for free monthly basic electricity.”

Expanding the catchment area for the free electricity units

In terms of the coverage now including informal settlements and Eskom covered areas, City Power  said this “will ensure that more of Johannesburg’s most vulnerable communities can benefit from this critical initiative.” 

The FBE programme offers 50kWh of free electricity monthly to qualifying indigent households and exempts registered beneficiaries from the R200 monthly fixed charge which consists of R70 service fee and R130 network capacity charge. 

This initiative is part of City Power’s broader plan to “promote social equity, reduce illegal connections, and ensure safe, legal access to electricity for all.”

As part of the continued outreach, pop-up registration sites will continue operating at malls, taxi ranks, community halls, regional customer service centres and City Power’s Service Delivery Centres (SDCs) across all regions. 

“Ward councillors and our Stakeholder Relations teams will continue to mobilise and assist residents on the ground. Additionally, City Power will, for a limited period, replace bypassed or tampered meters at no cost as part of our ongoing meter audit and normalisation programme.”

Households taking part in the FBE registration will also be exempted from the R200 surcharge. 

“We wish to reiterate that our teams will no longer respond to outage queries from customers without meters or tampered meters. 

“So, we urge everyone to take advantage of this opportunity to also avoid facing a penalty fee of R14,000 for a single phase household meter. We urge all eligible residents – including pensioners, child-headed households, unemployed individuals, and those earning less than R7,503.01 per month – to make use of this opportunity,” said City Power.

The utility said it has so far registered 10,000 customers for the FBE. 

SA government looking increase allocation of Free Basic Electricity

Last year, Minister of Electricity and Energy Kgosientsho Ramokgopa said that more than 10 million households qualify for free basic electricity across South Africa. However,  only two million of these are receiving the benefit. 

Last June, the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (NERSA), announced that it had approved a National FBE rate of 194.40c per kilowatt-hour for the 2024/2025 municipal financial year, effective from 1 July 2024. 

The FBE rate is the rate at which municipalities compensate Eskom for providing free basic electricity units to qualifying customers. 

FBE is the amount of electricity deemed sufficient to provide basic electricity services to qualifying households.

The free 50kWh basic electricity provided to poor households every month is still being reviewed by Eskom and the South African National Energy Development Institute (Sanedi).

One of the main considerations include increasing the 50kWh to an amount between 150kWh and 200kWh per month.

For the City Power FBE initiative, customers can register by visiting their nearest SDC or designated pop-up sites with the required documents, which include: 

• ID Document 
• City Power prepaid meter number 
• Proof of income or grant (SASSA) 
• Three months’ bank statements 
• Proof of residence 
• COJ municipal account (if applicable) 

The application form is also available online at www.citypower.co.za/home

Cover photo:  City Power has extended the deadline for qualifying households to apply for Free Basic Electricity. Source: CityofJoburgZA/X