Electrification in South Africa over the last 20 years

When South Africa came to the end of the apartheid era the country realised that we cannot have more than 70% of our community without electricity, so major efforts were made to provide electricity to those without electricity. Originally this was thought to be a technical and financial challenge, but it was soon realised that this was also a social challenge. Many lessons were learnt by those involved in the process and often new challenges were overcome. This paper describes what was achieved and reported on at the Domestic Use of Energy conferences. Electrification brought comfort and the ability to do things that were difficult to do, or not possible before, to the population. It was thought that it would bring economic activities and development to the community, but although it opened many doors for that, it was soon realised that electricity is in many instances a prerequisite for many economic activities, but it does not bring economic activity by itself.