Residents in panic mode rushing to upgrade meters

Eskom says there’s no need to go to their offices

With a few days left before the cut-off to upgrade prepaid electricity meters, Elizabeth Kunene, 62, slept outside Eskom's offices in Zola, Soweto, on Monday night. 

Kunene was one of hundreds from Soweto who queued for hours to have their prepaid meters upgraded ahead of the November 24 deadline.

Eskom and City Power prepaid meter customers have until Sunday to upgrade their them for free or face the possibility of paying up to R12,000 for a replacement meter.

Kunene, from Braamfischerville, arrived at the Zola offices at midnight on Monday to secure a space in the queue, but when she arrived there already scores of people in the queue. 

She spent 14 hours waiting for her turn as Eskom's computer system was allegedly slow and sometimes went off-line.

Sowetan spoke to her on Tuesday afternoon while she was waiting to be assisted. 

"I had to use a taxi to come here and I am still in the queue. When I got here there were people who been here since 7pm on Monday. We are not sure if they will assist us. Apparently there are only two people working inside. We are in a panic,” said Kunene. 

Most people who queued with her were elderly and said they found the process tedious and confusing. 

Minah Mbele, 67, from Snake Park, said the Eskom office close to her home could not assist them and they were referred to Zola.

"Our ward councillor said he'd inquire with Eskom about the problem but he hasn't come back to us so we ended up here," said Mbele. 

City Power and Eskom introduced the new prepaid system last year to fight meter tampering and illegal electricity tokens. The recoded meters have a feature which alerts power utilities to any tampering of the box.

"Eskom has plans to sustain the rapid prepayment meter recoding process to ensure all prepayment electricity meters are recoded before the deadline. Some of the plans involve auditing and fixing meters that are faulty, bypassed or not buying," Eskom Group executive for distribution, Monde Bala, said this week.

To date, City Power has recoded 99% of its clients while Eskom has more than 6,9-million prepaid clients countrywide. The national campaign to upgrade has intensified as the deadline looms.

Long queues were also seen outside Eskom's Midway offices in Soweto yesterday morning. Most came from Tshiawelo, Protea North and Dlamini and had been there as early as 3am.

Refilwe Khumalo, 65, had to go back home to get another lunchbox as she had been in the queue since the early morning hours. She also had to buy a chair as standing was taking a toll on her.

“I got here around 6am and went back home at 9am to go get my lunchbox and buy a chair because I had been standing in the sun for hours without assistance. I had to use a taxi to go home and come back here,” she said.

According to residents who have been assisted, only four people were helping them inside. They said the system kept going offline and they had to wait until the network was back.

“We risk our lives being in the streets around this time (4am) because the nyaope boys will rob us. I waited for 30 minutes to be served and only four people are helping inside. Their computers are very slow and I had to wait for them to come back online,” said James Hlongwane, 71.

City Power spokesperson Issac Mangena said though they have converted most of the city's meters, they experienced challenges in places such as Alexandra, where 87% of the households have upgraded.

"One of the primary obstacles faced by City Power in Alexandra has been gaining access to homes for meter audits. However, through collaborative efforts with local ward councillors, we have successfully resumed the installation of smart meters in areas such as Juskei River, Eastbank and Westbank. "

Challenges were also experienced in Makhanda in the Eastern Cape, and two local authorities were recently red-flagged by Eskom during a parliamentary project oversight committee meeting for the delayed implementation of the rollover project. 

Last week, Sowetan sister publication the Dispatch reported 6,846 Eskom customers in Makana ran the risk of not being able to load electricity after the cut-off date.

To check whether your meter has been recoded/upgraded to KRN2 or is on KRN1, enter the code 1844 6744 0738 4377 2416 on your prepaid meter’s keypad. The screen will display 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 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:

• Key in the first 20 digits of your recode token and wait for it to be accepted.
• Key in the second 20 digits of your recode token and wait for it to be accepted.
• Key in the digits of your purchased token to recharge your meter. 

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