How common are prepaid electricity meters in South Africa?
In 2025, 80.7% of South African households with access to electricity said they got it mainly through an in-house prepaid meter. The share ranged from 66.8% in Gauteng to 94.9% in Limpopo, a gap of 28.1 percentage points. Stats SA General Household Survey 2025, Figure 11.2, page 44
By Freepaid · Published
The breakdown by province
The table shows the main electricity source that households reported in each province.
| Province | In-house prepaid meter | In-house conventional meter | Other source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Eastern Cape | 91.6% | 4.6% | 3.8% |
| Free State | 90.7% | 7.3% | 2.0% |
| Gauteng | 66.8% | 17.2% | 16.0% |
| KwaZulu-Natal | 78.1% | 15.1% | 6.8% |
| Limpopo | 94.9% | 3.0% | 2.1% |
| Mpumalanga | 90.1% | 6.9% | 3.0% |
| North West | 86.5% | 4.7% | 8.8% |
| Northern Cape | 88.8% | 9.3% | 1.9% |
| Western Cape | 84.6% | 8.9% | 6.6% |
| South Africa | 80.7% | 11.0% | 8.3% |
The Western Cape row sums to 100.1% because Stats SA rounds each estimate to one decimal place. Gauteng had the largest provincial share in the other-source category, which includes arrangements such as getting electricity through a neighbour or landlord. Stats SA General Household Survey 2025, Figure 11.2, page 44
The metro average hides a wide range
Across the eight metros, 72.0% reported an in-house prepaid meter, 8.7 percentage points below the national share. Mangaung recorded 99.0%, Cape Town 88.9%, Johannesburg 63.5% and eThekwini 62.1%. Johannesburg also had the largest share of households in the other-source category among metros, at 19.3%. Stats SA General Household Survey 2025, Figure 11.3, page 44
What the survey counts
The survey asks households with access to electricity how they mainly get it. It separately asks about connection to the mains. Stats SA estimated that 90.6% of all households had a mains connection in 2025. The meter breakdown counts households by their main source, regardless of how often they top up or how much they spend. Stats SA General Household Survey 2025, Figures 11.1 and 11.2, pages 43–44 · Stats SA GHS 2025 metadata, ENG2, page 78, via UCT DataFirst
Sources
The household estimates come from Statistics South Africa’s General Household Survey 2025. Freepaid calculated the percentage-point gaps by subtracting the published shares. Stats SA General Household Survey 2025, pages 43–44 · Copy of the Stats SA report via UCT DataFirst
Last source check · 3 November 2026.