Efficient lighting for the residential sector in South Africa stemmed out of an electricity supply crisis. The Compact Fluorescent Lamps (CFL) rollout programme was carried out in the absence of a supporting policy. The implementation resulted in both desirable and undesirable outcomes. Of even greater concern is that a section of the market may be regressing to inefficient lighting. An analysis of lighting technologies available in the market shows that a shift to more energy efficient lighting technologies, such as light-emitting diodes (LED), will result in significant energy savings.