Townships | Radio 94.7 FM

Johanna Ditsela lives in Alexandra within sight of the gleaming skyscrapers of South Africa’s main financial district, Sandton, but has existed in squalor for 30 years.

Unemployed and in her 50s, she picks her way along a stream full of sewage, dead rats and empty beer bottles to reach the cramped concrete and corrugated iron shack that she shares with her five children.

The shocking conditions in which people like Ditsela live are a big problem for the governing African National Congress (ANC), which faces mounting public anger over its failure to improve the lives of millions of the poorest citizens, 25 years after the end of white minority rule.

Ditsela’s Johannesburg township, Alexandra, has seen protests against overcrowding and poor public services in the run-up to a general election on May 8.

President Cyril Ramaphosa, who was campaigning for the ANC in Alexandra on Thursday, blamed the opposition Democratic Alliance party, whi
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Government wants townships to use more electricity – and may give them one free unit for every unit bought

Informal settlements may get one free unit of electricity for every unit purchased in a bid to increase power usage and reduce air pollution in townships.

In its strategy to address air pollution in dense low-income settlements, published in the government gazette on Friday, the department said air pollution is costing the state up to R2 billion annually in health-related costs.

Wood, coal and paraffin burning causes massive pollution in South Africa’s townships. The department hopes households can be encouraged to use electricity instead by making it cheaper.

“One example could be a subsidy that gives the user one (1) unit of electricity for every unit purchased. Alternatively, a stepped tariff which provides indigent households with the first specific kWh of electricity per month for free and charge a stepped tari
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