scholarly journals Pay as You Go: Prepaid Metering and Electricity Expenditures in South Africa

2015 ◽  
Vol 105 (5) ◽  
pp. 237-241 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. Kelsey Jack ◽  
Grant Smith
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Socioeconomic Status ◽  
Developing World ◽  
Property Values ◽  
Cape Town ◽  
Purchase Behavior ◽  
Technological Solution ◽  
Electricity Access

High rates of customer default on utility bills present a barrier to the expansion of electricity access in the developing world. Pre-paid electricity metering offers a technological solution to ensuring timely payment. Using an eleven-year panel of pre-paid electricity customers in Cape Town, South Africa, we describe patterns of purchase behavior across property values, our measure of socioeconomic status. Poorer households buy electricity more often, in smaller increments, and are most likely to buy on payday. These patterns suggest difficulties smoothing income, and reveal a preference for small, frequent purchases that is incompatible with a standard monthly electricity billing cycle.

scholarly journals Higher SARS-CoV-2 Seroprevalence in Workers with Lower Socioeconomic Status in Cape Town, South Africa.

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane Alexandra Shaw ◽  
Maynard Meiring ◽  
Tracy Cummins ◽  
Novel Chegou ◽  
Conita Claassen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Socioeconomic Status ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Cape Town ◽  
Lower Socioeconomic Status ◽  
Serum Samples ◽  
High Background ◽  
Lower Socioeconomic ◽  
Antibody Positivity ◽  
High Degree

Abstract Background: South Africa has a high degree of inequality between population groups. The first wave of COVID-19 may have affected people in lower socioeconomic groups worse than the affluent. The SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence and the specificity of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibody tests in South Africa is not known. Methods: We tested 405 volunteers representing all socioeconomic strata from the workforce of a popular shopping and tourist complex in central Cape Town with the Abbott SARS-CoV-2 IgG assay. We assessed the association between antibody positivity and COVID-19 symptom status, medical history, and sociodemographic variables. We tested 137 serum samples from healthy controls collected in Cape Town prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, to confirm the specificity of the assay in the local population.Results: Of the 405 volunteers tested one month after the first peak of the epidemic in Cape Town, 96(23.7%) were SARS-CoV-2 IgG positive. Of those who tested positive, 46(47.9%) reported no symptoms of COVID-19 in the previous 6 months. Seropositivity was significantly associated with living in informal housing, residing in a subdistrict with low income-per household, and having a low-earning occupation. The specificity of the assay was 98.54%(95%CI 94.82%-99.82%) in the pre-COVID controls.Conclusions: There is a high background seroprevalence in Cape Town, particularly in people of lower socioeconomic status. Half of cases are asymptomatic, and therefore undiagnosed by local testing strategies. These results cannot be explained by low assay specificity.

scholarly journals Charging Ahead: Prepaid Metering, Electricity Use, and Utility Revenue

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 134-168 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kelsey Jack ◽  
Grant Smith
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Developing Countries ◽  
Cape Town ◽  
Electric Utility ◽  
Price Sensitivity ◽  
Technological Solution ◽  
Electricity Use ◽  
Net Revenue ◽  
Marginal Price ◽  
Random Variation

Monthly bills for services such as electricity often go unpaid in developing countries. Prepaid meters offer a potential technological solution. In Cape Town, South Africa, over 4,000 residential customers on monthly billing were switched to prepaid metering, with random variation in the timing of the switch. In response, electricity use falls by 14 percent, driven at least in part by an increase in marginal price sensitivity. The decrease in revenue to the municipal electric utility is more than offset by lower revenue recovery costs. Switching poorer and more in-debt customers generates the greatest net revenue gains to the utility. (JEL L94, L98, O13, Q41, Q48)

scholarly journals Higher SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence in workers with lower socioeconomic status in Cape Town, South Africa

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. e0247852
Author(s):  
Jane Alexandra Shaw ◽  
Maynard Meiring ◽  
Tracy Cummins ◽  
Novel N. Chegou ◽  
Conita Claassen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Socioeconomic Status ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Local Population ◽  
Cape Town ◽  
Lower Socioeconomic Status ◽  
Serum Samples ◽  
High Background ◽  
Lower Socioeconomic ◽  
Antibody Positivity

Background Inequality is rife throughout South Africa. The first wave of COVID-19 may have affected people in lower socioeconomic groups worse than the affluent. The SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence and the specificity of anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibody tests in South Africa is not known. Methods We tested 405 volunteers representing all socioeconomic strata from the workforce of a popular shopping and tourist complex in central Cape Town with the Abbott SARS-CoV-2 IgG assay. We assessed the association between antibody positivity and COVID-19 symptom status, medical history, and sociodemographic variables. We tested 137 serum samples from healthy controls collected in Cape Town prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, to confirm the specificity of the assay in the local population. Results Of the 405 volunteers tested one month after the first peak of the epidemic in Cape Town, 96(23.7%) were SARS-CoV-2 IgG positive. Of those who tested positive, 46(47.9%) reported no symptoms of COVID-19 in the previous 6 months. Seropositivity was significantly associated with living in informal housing, residing in a subdistrict with low income-per household, and having a low-earning occupation. The specificity of the assay was 98.54%(95%CI 94.82%-99.82%) in the pre-COVID controls. Conclusions There is a high background seroprevalence in Cape Town, particularly in people of lower socioeconomic status. Almost half of cases are asymptomatic, and therefore undiagnosed by local testing strategies. These results cannot be explained by low assay specificity.

scholarly journals Alcohol consumption amongst young adults living in a low socioeconomic status community in Cape Town

2013 ◽  
Vol 41 (6) ◽  
pp. 971-979
Author(s):  
Sabirah Adams ◽  
Shazly Savahl ◽  
Serena Isaacs ◽  
Cassandra Zeta Carels
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Socioeconomic Status ◽  
Young Adults ◽  
Alcohol Consumption ◽  
Low Socioeconomic Status ◽  
Cape Town ◽  
Risk And Resilience ◽  
Cross Sectional Survey ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Low Socioeconomic

Our aim was to ascertain the extent of risky alcohol consumption amongst young adults living in a low socioeconomic status community in Cape Town, South Africa. We used a cross-sectional survey design and the street intercept method to administer the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT). A key finding in this study was that 54.30% of male and 47.90% of the female participants were alcohol dependent, according to the classification criteria set out in the AUDIT. Our finding necessitates further investigations into alcohol consumption amongst young adults in South Africa. In addition, researchers should endeavor not only to identify, but also to understand, the dynamics of risk and resilience factors so that this information could be used to develop intervention initiatives that could mediate young adults' initial consumption of alcohol.

Time and Latitude in South Africa

1972 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 27-38
Author(s):  
J. Hers
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Cape Town ◽  
Astronomical Observations ◽  
Royal Observatory ◽  
The Republic ◽  
Astronomical Determination ◽  
Limited Accuracy ◽  
Better Than

In South Africa the modern outlook towards time may be said to have started in 1948. Both the two major observatories, The Royal Observatory in Cape Town and the Union Observatory (now known as the Republic Observatory) in Johannesburg had, of course, been involved in the astronomical determination of time almost from their inception, and the Johannesburg Observatory has been responsible for the official time of South Africa since 1908. However the pendulum clocks then in use could not be relied on to provide an accuracy better than about 1/10 second, which was of the same order as that of the astronomical observations. It is doubtful if much use was made of even this limited accuracy outside the two observatories, and although there may – occasionally have been a demand for more accurate time, it was certainly not voiced.

Knowledge about Newborn Discharge Follow-up in Cape Town, South Africa

PEDIATRICS ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 137 (Supplement 3) ◽  
pp. 393A-393A
Author(s):  
KaWing Cho ◽  
Jean P Milambo ◽  
Leonidas Ndayisaba ◽  
Charles Okwundu ◽  
Abiola Olowoyeye ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Cape Town
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