in addition high administrative costs are incurred in the application of means tests in order to verify eligibility for free basic supply to avoid these administrative costs some municipalities have opted to apply free basic allocation to all domestic consumers with the unintended consequence that wealthy consumers receive the free basic allocation if they happen to reside in one of those municipalities south africa has one of the lowest electricity tariffs in the world with an average selling price as illustrated below at around usd per kwh despite the tariff regime there is argued and documented energy poverty among both electrified and nonelectrified consumers department of energy g