{"id":90288,"date":"2025-09-25T18:27:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-25T18:27:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/eskoms-concern-over-low-free-basic-electricity-uptake"},"modified":"2025-09-25T18:58:53","modified_gmt":"2025-09-25T18:58:53","slug":"eskoms-concern-over-low-free-basic-electricity-uptake","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/eskoms-concern-over-low-free-basic-electricity-uptake","title":{"rendered":"Eskom&#8217;s Concern Over Low Free Basic Electricity Uptake"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; South-Africa. <\/strong><\/span>Power utility Eskom is concerned that while more than two million customers qualify for free electricity, only 400,000 are enjoying the benefit.<\/p>\n<p>Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramakgopa revealed this during a media briefing in Pretoria on Thursday and assured that the pending rollout of specialised smart meters would help fast-track the determination of who qualifies.<\/p>\n<p>READ: Ramakgopa announces plan to roll out specialised smart meters to fight illegal connections<\/p>\n<p>The minister said that while many customers may be apprehensive about the move, the new metres will help bridge the gap and ensure the rightful beneficiaries are reached.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Two point one million customers on the Eskom side qualify, but only 485,000 are getting this free basic electricity and yet National Treasury is giving to allocate municipalities to Eskom to ensure that the poor get free electricity.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">South-Africa<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; South-Africa. Power utility Eskom is concerned that while more than two million customers qualify for free electricity, only 400,000 are enjoying the benefit. Electricity Minister Kgosientsho Ramakgopa revealed this during a media briefing in Pretoria on Thursday and assured that the pending rollout of specialised smart meters would help fast-track the determination of [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":90287,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5],"tags":[275],"class_list":["post-90288","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-economy","tag-south-africa-2"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Eskom&#039;s Concern Over Low Free Basic Electricity Uptake - South Africa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Power utility Eskom is concerned that while more than two million customers qualify for free electricity, only 400,000 a ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/eskoms-concern-over-low-free-basic-electricity-uptake\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Eskom&#039;s Concern Over Low Free Basic Electricity Uptake\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Power utility Eskom is concerned that while more than two million customers qualify for free electricity, only 400,000 a ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/eskoms-concern-over-low-free-basic-electricity-uptake\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"South Africa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-09-25T18:27:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-09-25T18:58:53+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2025\/09\/sm_1758813720.680987.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/eskoms-concern-over-low-free-basic-electricity-uptake#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/eskoms-concern-over-low-free-basic-electricity-uptake\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Eskom&#8217;s Concern Over Low Free Basic Electricity Uptake\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-09-25T18:27:07+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-09-25T18:58:53+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/eskoms-concern-over-low-free-basic-electricity-uptake\"},\"wordCount\":153,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/eskoms-concern-over-low-free-basic-electricity-uptake#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2025\/09\/sm_1758813720.680987.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"South-Africa\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"economy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/eskoms-concern-over-low-free-basic-electricity-uptake#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/eskoms-concern-over-low-free-basic-electricity-uptake\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/eskoms-concern-over-low-free-basic-electricity-uptake\",\"name\":\"Eskom's Concern Over Low Free Basic Electricity Uptake - 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