Off-grid electricity imaginaries: Tracing urban citizenship in Cape Town’s informal settlements

Abstract

Low-income households in South Africa’s rapidly urbanising cities often face significant challenges in accessing grid electricity. These challenges are illustrative of the limitations of conventional municipality-led grid expansion, and necessitate the exploration of alternative energy solutions that could reshape energy provision in these contexts. To better understand how such alternative solutions are envisioned and realised, this paper examines an imaginary-in-the-making around off-grid electrification in informal settlements through decentralised renewable energy infrastructures. Drawing on three case studies in the City of Cape Town (CCT), it explores the social and political dynamics of this emerging off-grid electricity imaginary, and explores technical solutions for solar home systems, mini-grids, and solar-powered public lighting. At the heart of these dynamics lies the transformative shift towards the formal recognition of this imaginary in the CCT’s 2050 Energy Strategy, published in 2023. Employing dramaturgical analysis, with the Triple-Re Framework (TRF), this paper aims to understand how alternative energy imaginaries can gain traction in African cities. We argue that the dynamics around the off-grid electricity imaginary can be understood as a ‘dramaturgy of incrementalism’ a dramaturgy that creates a new political reality for informal settlements and opens up new forms of urban citizenship. The case studies demonstrate how (i) off-grid electricity imaginaries help re-imagine how renewable energy can improve electricity access in African cities while promoting equity and inclusivity, and (ii) how the dynamics around the imaginary open up new opportunities for political participation, contestation, and urban citizenship.