Electricity upgrade chaos claims man's life

'He was talking to a friend when he collapsed'

A Soweto man collapsed and died while in the queue waiting for his turn to have his Eskom prepaid meter upgraded on Thursday. 

Joseph Fikile Busakwe, 59, left his house on Thursday morning to rush to be the first in line at the Orlando East Communal Hall. However, when he arrived at the hall he was number 486 in the queue as there were already hundreds of people waiting to be served ahead of Eskom's Sunday deadline to have the meters recoded. 

He had been attempting to have his meter upgraded by following Eskom prompts but failed to do so. 

“He left the house at 4.10am to book a place in the queue before Eskom employees arrived. About 20 minutes later, his wife received a call that she should rush to the hall because her husband has fainted,” said Vuvu Keswa, the deceased’s sister-in-law.

When she got there she found Busakwe sprawled on the floor. She thought he'd wake up but paramedics declared him dead on the scene.

Linda Booysen, one of residents who witnessed the incident, told Sowetan that the deceased was with a friend talking when he suddenly fell to the ground.

Booysen, 40, was sixth in the queue behind Busakwe.

“We tried for almost an hour to resuscitate him ... we poured water over him and  shook him to no avail. And when paramedics finally arrived, they declared him dead and covered him with a silver foil.

“This scared us as a community that a person has died over  a prepaid meter upgrade. Are you telling me that Eskom could not have found a better way to do these upgrades?”

Eskom and City Power started the upgrading programme in August last year, but with the deadline now looming, there has been a huge panic as some people only heeded the call very late while others faced challenges with upgrading their meters from the comfort of their homes.

His wife received a call that she should rush to the hall because her husband has fainted.Vuvu Keswa

This has resulted in long queues at various centres across the country where upgrades can be carried out. 

Minister of electricity and energy Kgosientsho Ramokgopa said as of Tuesday morning, 2.1-million people had not yet migrated and stood the risk of not having electricity after the Sunday deadline. Those who miss the deadline would have to replace their meters at their own costs. 

He said the deadline cannot be extended.

“It's not extendable, it's a technical issue. We can't extend it. It's a hard stop. On November 24 if you have not recoded, you are sitting with a different problem. Beyond November 24 we have to physically remove the meter and that comes at a cost. It's a significant cost, and that cost must be borne by the consumer because we have done everything possible," said Ramokgopa.

To check whether your meter has been recoded/upgraded to KRN2 or is still on KRN1, please enter the code 1844 6744 0738 4377 2416 on your prepaid meter’s keypad. The screen will display either the number 1 or 2, and in some cases, there may also be alphabetic letters alongside the KRN number.

Number 1 means your meter is still on KRN1 and needs to be recoded/upgraded to KRN2.

Get your two key change tokens from your local or online vendor when Eskom prompts you that your area is active and follow these steps:

Step1

Key in the first 20 digits of your recode token and wait for it to be accepted.

Step2 

Key in the second 20 digits of your recode token and wait for it to be accepted. 

Step 3

Very important last step: key in the digits of your purchased token to recharge your meter. 

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