More than 14 000 electricity meters in the Western Cape have yet to be updated or rolled over because some are duplicated, inaccessible or have been inactive for prolonged periods of time.
The owners of these meters have been provided a chance to update their devices after Eskom extended the deadline to update meters to be KRN2 (Key Revision Number 2) compliant.
This requirement, despite the extended deadline, has led to frustrations and chaotic scenes outside Eskom offices as electricity users scrambled to have their meters recoded. Many braved the early hours to reach these crucial centres.
A resident of Lenasia, south of Soweto, shared his ordeal after arriving at a centre on Sunday to upgrade his meter.
“I got here at 4am alongside other elderly people to register. The queue extended from the garage. They opened their gates at 7 o’clock. The queue was extremely slow; it started moving around 12 when they brought in more staff. But what they failed to do was have marshals, and they weren’t taking in elderly people to move ahead in the queue,” Simon Mamba said.
“Imagine that the queue is long; some did not take their medication.”
Out of 6.9 million prepaid meters, 5.48 million had been converted according to Eskom’s Key Revision Number dashboard on Sunday, leaving at least 20% still outstanding.
Eskom said a “technological breakthrough” has enabled it to pre-create Key Change Tokens (KCT) on its online vending system specifically aimed at zero buyers.
“They will be issued their KCT by the vending agents to make their meters KRN2 compliant. This action of purchasing credit tokens must be completed before Sunday, 24 November 2024, to trigger the activation of the meter to the KRN2 mode.
“Once the meter has been activated by the purchase of electricity, the customer can then visit any of the Eskom sites to complete the conversion process. The final step can be completed after 24 November 2024,” said Eskom.
The Western Cape had 1 058 255 meters that had to be reset.
Provincial Treasury said: “These refer only to the meters in municipal supply areas.
“Western Cape municipalities have thus far successfully reset or rolled over 1 043 971 of these meters for an official completion rate of 98.7%. Provincial Treasury followed up with municipalities and can confirm that all municipalities in the Western Cape successfully rolled over their meters.
“The outstanding percentage refers to meters that could not be reset due to several reasons, for instance, duplicate meters, inaccessible meters, meters being inactive for prolonged periods of time.”
George Municipality said they had completed Token Identifier (TID) rollover across all areas within the municipal precinct, including Uniondale, Haarlem, Wilderness and surrounding areas.
“Reports indicate that even areas serviced by Eskom have largely completed the TID rollover process.
“However, a few meters with irregularities, such as outdated meters or instances of tampering, have been identified.
“These will be addressed on a case-by-case basis. Should residents encounter issues with purchasing electricity after 24 November 2024, they are encouraged to contact the municipality or Ontec for prompt assistance,” the municipality said.
The City recently said prepaid electricity meter updates have been completed way ahead of the deadline.
“City-supplied customers are not impacted by the end-November deadline.
“Eskom customers are urged to approach Eskom, and again the City calls on Eskom to ramp up its customer support and customer hubs across the metro where Eskom supplies residents. Customers with private sub-meters are encouraged to contact the private installers for assistance. The City has been managing the update process of City-owned meters for the past three years.”
•Additional reporting by Anita Nkonki and Hope Mafu
Cape Times