Government-funded programmes and services for vulnerable - Unicef

Department of Energy
Solar heating installation costs
The selection criteria used to determine eligibility for installation of a solar heating
system excluded those households most in need of solar systems, namely, extremely poor
households, from qualifying.
Poorer households could not afford the initial once-off connection fee of
R100 and the subsequent service fee of R58 (as FBE [free basic electricity] was
introduced only at a later stage). [I]n addition [these families] continued to
purchase wood and paraffin, given the limited capacity of SHSs [solar heating
systems]. Consequently, they did not qualify for the installation of a SHS and
also do not benefit from the FBE policy. Thus, some of the poorest people do
not benefit from the FBE policy, thereby limiting the intended poverty reduction
effect and constraining the abolishment of inequalities in service delivery.
(Malzbender 2005: 16)
Free electricity policy
The free basic electricity policy does not draw a distinction between households of different
sizes. All households, regardless of size, receive the same quantity of free electricity.
This means that there is ‘a disproportionately lower benefit for bigger households. Given
the reality that larger households are mostly female headed (often by a pensioner with
dependent grandchildren who lost their parents to an Aids related illness), this policy
further disadvantages women and the poorest households’ (Malzbender 2005: 16).
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