Prepaid users who bypassed meters given lifeline to upgrade, admit guilt

Prepaid customers who have been bypassing their meters and not purchasing electricity have been given until mid-December to have their meters regularised and make an admission of guilt.

This was announced by electricity and energy minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa at a media briefing on Wednesday aimed at providing an update on the key revision number (KRN) rollover project. Prepaid meters were on November 24 updated from KRN1 to KRN2.

Chaos ensued last week when panicked people flocked to their nearest Eskom or municipal offices to update their prepaid meters ahead of the Sunday deadline.

Ramokgopa embarked on an information drive in Soweto last Thursday amid the chaos. He interacted with stranded customers and shared his insights during the Wednesday morning briefing.

The minister said five categories of customers were present in the long-winding queues. 

The first were those who purchased electricity but experienced technical glitches, which affected their ability to make the switch.

The second, which was the “biggest category”, were those who bypassed the meter and relied on illegal connections. This group would not have been able to convert even if they received the token needed to make the conversion.

“These are the people to whom we've communicated it is our intention that from now until December 13, to allow them to present themselves so we can regularise them

“Then there's things around tampering fines, essentially an admission of guilt. We accept it's an onerous obligation of about R6,000 and that gets to be split over 12 months and the customer pays R500 a month to cushion the blow," he said.

The third were those who'd never had meters but had “found an ingenious way” to illegally connect to the grid. This group would have also not been able to convert and were told to go home and wait for a visit from Eskom to address the situation.

The fourth were those not on prepaid meters, while the fifth were those with faulty meters who were somehow able to get electricity — another form of an illegal connection.

“This window we've created until December 13 is a credit control window,” he said.

Ramokgopa also provided an update on the 2.1-million people who were previously zero buyers. He said this number had been revised down to 1.7-million after 400,000 converted to paying customers.

“What we know is that there's a significant amount of people who have chosen not to go through the proper channels. They have not been consuming electricity legally, so we are confirming we have known over time but this exercise has helped to quantify [this] in real terms.”

The minister extended his condolences to the family of Joseph Fikile Busakwe, 59, who died while queuing to have his meter upgraded.

“I'm also advised there were one or two other incidents, but I'm waiting for the office to confirm and then we will convey our messages of condolence.”

While he insisted Eskom had carried out as much communication about the project as it could, the power utility's head of distribution Monde Bala conceded that more could have been done.

Ramokgopa also touched on the task team appointed to provide a technical assessment on billing issues between the City of Joburg and Eskom, confirming the South African National Energy Development Institute had requested an extension.

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