Elections: What the ANC, DA, EFF and MK promise on electricity as load reduction lingers

Two weeks before the 4 November Local Government elections, the ANC, DA, EFF and MK party have set out their electricity plans in their manifestos.

The ANC and DA have focused on improving municipal networks, while the EFF wants electricity treated as a public good, and the MK Party targets private power producers.

We will keep the lights on by reinvesting electricity revenue into electrical infrastructure, maintaining grids, enabling municipalities to buy and sell their own power, and supporting households and businesses that can feed electricity back into the system.

DA leader Geordin Hill-Lewis framed electricity as part of the party’s promise to get municipalities working. The party also plans to pay grid maintenance contractors based on network uptime and to publish map-based reports on blackouts.

The DA manifesto states: “Municipalities must be empowered to buy and sell electricity directly from private energy companies without waiting years for national government approval.”

Meanwhile, the EFF has reiterated its call for social grant beneficiaries to be exempted from paying for water and electricity. EFF leader Julius Malema has argued that pensioners and all Sassa recipients should not pay for electricity, stating that if the government provides social grants because people are struggling, they should not be charged for basic services.

The MK Party has pledged to “Ensure that key state SEO’s provide cheap electricity, water, and transport for citizens and industry.”