Residents in the Free State have registered the second highest usage of electricity in the country. This is according to Statistics South Africa’s Community Survey for 2016.
It found that over 90% of households in both Free State and Western Cape use electricity for cooking, ranking them the highest as compared to other provinces in the country. The same percentage of households in the province are also using electricity as the main source of lighting. The use of candles remained the second dominant with 37% followed by 24,5% of those using firewood for cooking.
A mere 2,5% of households are using solar systems compared to 3% (of households) using gas and coal respectively. The top three leading provinces in terms of overall electricity usage are Western Cape with 97% and Free State with 94,2% usage. The lowest usage was measured in the Eastern Cape with only 86,8% of households.
The survey found that although Gauteng province is known to be the economic hub of the country, the use of electricity by households dropped slightly by 0,7% as compared to the national average – Cathy Dlodlo