For those families that are able to connect to the grid, there is then the very real question of whether the lights might go out. Recent power cuts in and around Johannesburg have underlined the precarious nature of the country’s electricity supply.

Demand for electricity in South Africa is increasing at a rate of 2.5 per cent to 3 per cent a year and the republic is close to exhausting its capacity to meet its energy needs from domestic sources. Even though 40 per cent of the population is still not connected to the grid, Eskom, the state-owned electricity generator and supplier, expects to run out of capacity by 2007. Unless South Africa finds new energy resources, power cuts could be come a regular occurrence.

As Britain considers whether it should begin building a new generation of nuclear power stations, the South African Government has already made up its mind.

It is banking on a new generation of nuclear reactors — which it claims will be much safer, cheaper and more flexible than previous models — to provide up to a quarter of its electricity in years to come.

South African ministers have decided to put their weight and more than a billion rand of investment, so far, behind a Pebble Bed Modular Reactor (PBMR), in partnership with British Nuclear Fuels, Eskom and other foreign and domestic investors.

This week a fresh round of public meetings on the environmental impact of the project started. So why should a coal-rich country want to start developing nuclear reactors? South Africa’s problem is that transporting power from its minehead power stations, east of Johannesburg, to the Western Cape, costs a fortune. For that reason, South Africa developed the continent’s first nuclear reactor at Koeberg, 30 kilometres (18.6 miles) north of Cape Town.

Mounting pressure to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as well as concerns over security of supply have given fresh momentum to new nuclear generation.

A number of ministers have endorsed the PBMR and last month the Government announced significant funding for it. So far it has spent R680 million and has committed itself to a further R580 million during the next three years.

"The PBMR project is now factored into our future energy planning and we are negotiating a major intention to purchase agreement between Eskom and the PBMR. This is probably a world first and forms the foundation for further development and industrialisation of this technology," Alec Erwin, the Minister of Public Enterprises, said in April.

The authorities are confident that they will see off the latest appeal by Earthlife, South Africa’s version of Greenpeace, and that construction of a demonstration plant at Koeberg and a fuel plant at Pelindaba, near Pretoria, will begin in 2007. Completion of the plant is scheduled for 2010, with commercial output from 2013. Eskom intends to take 4,000 to 5,000 megawatts (MW) of power from PBMR — which eventually would mean 20 to 30 of the reactor modules.

PBMR is considered leading-edge among the tight-knit global nuclear industry, and South Africa believes that there is a market for about 75 reactors outside its borders. That could create 56,000 jobs across South Africa and generate R23 billion. The process of getting the technology licensed in the United States has also begun, but the small size of the Pebble Bed reactor means that it is more suitable for developing countries, where grids may not be able to withstand a larger reactor.

Thabo Mbeki’s Government has invested a lot of money and expectations in the technology, which it hopes will lift millions out of poverty. Treasury officials are already talking about an eventual listing.

Elsewhere in rural South Africa, there are more mundane hopes — not having to switch off the lights to boil the kettle would be nice.

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