Mixed reactions from citizens over prepaid meter upgrades
New meters bring more problems for Ekurhuleni residents
Eskom recently issued a warning to their prepaid customers to urgently recode or upgrade their electricity meter, this will result in the meter becoming redundant and will stop accepting electricity tokens.
Any meter that is not recoded by November 24, will stop working. However, this has elicited mixed reactions from some of our followers living in the City of Ekurhuleni.
Elizabeth Tshidi Mampe (64) from Bluegum View in Duduza expressed her dissatisfaction on the matter, including the challenges they face using the new meters.
“I’m not happy because our government doesn’t care for the people. In our area, we have been with electricity for the past six months and now they came back to install the new meter boxes which are complicated because they shut down when the units are finished. Some of us are pensioners and cannot afford to buy electricity every day,” she said.
Another community member, Selina Nkosi from Masechaba, runs a baking business and she no longer makes any profit since the installation of the new meter boxes.
“I have to take out R300 to buy electricity every day and this has really affected the business,” Nkosi lamented.
Phindi Mnisi (44) puts the blame on the state.
“I feel like our government has failed us because they promised that we won’t have load shedding after the elections, but things are actually going from bad to worse. We can’t afford electricity because people are struggling and unemployed,” she said.
How to check your meter box is up-to-date
Ntombifuthi Hlophe, Senior Advisor Communications & Stakeholder Management in Gauteng explained the steps to follow if someone wants to check whether their meter box is upgraded or not.
“If you want to know if your meter has been recoded or upgraded, check on the receipt you get when buying electricity and see if your meter is on KRN 1or 2. KRN 1 means that your meter is not recoded or upgraded, which means that failure to recode or upgrade it by the given due date (November 24), your meter won’t be active. KRN 2 means that your meter is okay and already upgraded. You need to recode your meter by going to an Eskom approved electricity outlet,” Hlophe explained.
City leading the upgrade of meters
The City of Ekurhuleni has confirmed that the process to upgrade the city’s meters began in September to ensure that there is uninterrupted electricity supply to businesses and communities.
“The current electricity meters will automatically seize to work by 24 November 2024 owing to a date rollover problem, unless each individual meter is updated. This means residents will no longer be able to load electricity on them after the said deadline,” explains metro spokesman Zweli Dlamini.
“The Token Identifier (TID) rollover programme that the City is using to update the electricity meters will continue until 24 November 2024.”
Tokens or vouchers that were purchased but not utilised before the deadline will be rendered invalid.
Members of the public are informed that to update, when making the first purchase of electricity after the system settings, a client will receive a receipt with three tokens on it that need to be entered in the sequence as printed on the receipt. The update takes about two minutes to process.
“This change will affect all prepaid meters with 11 digits and not only the City of Ekurhuleni prepaid electricity meters,” Dlamini said in a statement.