Three million homes without power

Over three million households in South Africa have no electricity, an energy department official says.

Kwazulu-Natal was the hardest hit at 24 percent of households, with Gauteng and the Eastern Cape not far behind, said Integrated National Electrification Programme director Wolsey Barnard.

He said that of the 3.4 million households, two thirds were formal and a third were informal.

Barnard was addressing reporters at the launch of energy month in Cape Town.

The department's goal was to ensure 92 percent of national formal households had access to electricity by 2015.

Since the advent of democracy in 1994, over 5.4 million households had been electrified.