South Africa’s electricity price is soaring. Why protests are often the only way for people to be heard

By Luke Sinwell

Millions of unemployed South Africans, many of whom survive on a Social Relief of Distress Grant government grant of R370 (about US$21) per month, are not able to pay for electricity and still afford food and shelter. In the working class community of Thembisa in South Africa’s industrial heartland of Gauteng, the local government recently tried to make all families pay a fixed monthly fee of R126 (US$7) for electricity.

But the residents could not afford this and in late July, occupied roads and shut down the area. Within a day, the mayor scrapped the electricity fee.

Luke Sinwell, a scholar of popular history and grassroots mobilisation in South Africa, explains how protests might just be the only way for working class South Africans to make their voices heard.

Is electricity affordable in South Africa?

No. Electricity prices have skyrocketed over the last twenty-five years at approximately four times the rate of