Electricity access for the poor: a study of South Africa and Zimbabwe

Electricity access in sub-Saharan Africa is only 17 %, the lowest worldwide, but is even worse for the rural areas that house most of its poor, where it is estimated at around 5 %. This paper looks at this issue for two countries in Southern Africa, Zimbabwe and South Africa. South Africa and Zimbabwe present two different cases of how government policy intervention can help to improve access to modern energy services. The energy policies in South Africa and Zimbabwe evolved under different sets of national circumstances. South Africa is a highly industrialised country in Africa endowed with a wide variety of natural resources. The country is currently going through major changes in many spheres of its economy, including energy, following the democratic elections in 1994, with emphasis placed on redirecting key aspects of government policy to address the enormous disparities in income levels and living conditions between the different racial groups, a result of apartheid. Zimbabwe, on the other hand, is a landlocked country with an economy that relies heavily on agriculture, with higher levels of poverty that are closely related to the country's history of governance by the minority white government. After independence in 1980, the Government of Zimbabwe embarked on policies aimed at redressing the economic imbalances of the past, including reforms in the power sector. These included increasing electricity access to previously disadvantaged people through grid electricity expansion and off-grid electrification. The paper examines the impact of power sector reforms on the poor, with specific reference to the electrification programmes in the two countries. © 2004 International Energy Initiative, Inc.