With only two days remaining before the software for all prepaid electricity meters in South Africa expires on November 24, residents have been urged to upgrade their boxes before Sunday, or risk being in the dark
With only two days remaining before the software for all prepaid electricity meters in South Africa expires on November 24, residents have been urged to upgrade their boxes, or risk being in the dark.
Eskom this week warned that it could cost up to R12 000 to replace metres that had not been upgraded while the metres would become inoperable.
Sol Plaatje municipality spokesperson Thabo Mothibi said the process has been going smoothly where they were in the process of attending to the remaining residents who still need to be upgraded.
He stated that the customer care desk at the Civic Centre would be in operation on Saturday, November 23 from 7.45am until 12.30pm to provide further assistance.
Mothibi indicated that after November 24, prepaid customers who had not yet reset their electricity meter box memory, would not be able to recharge their electricity meter box with a token and would be left with no power supply.
He added that a total of 55 064 out of the 58 851 prepaid electricity meter boxes in the Sol Plaatje Municipality prepaid had been upgraded.
“To date 93, 57 percent of prepaid electricity meter boxes in the Sol Plaatje municipal area have been upgraded. The remaining 6, 43 percent of meter boxes that have not been upgraded are largely attributed to the replacement of the by-passed, tampered with and old meters that could not accept the conversion tokens,” he said.
He said the South Africa’s Token Identifier (TDI) rollover that was introduced in March 2023, was a standard enhancement project that was being implemented to avoid the token producing system running out of numbers.
“The software update is also aimed at eliminating ghost vending,” he said.
Mothibi said those who experienced any challenges could contact the municipality.
“Prepaid users are requested to enter 1844 6744 0738 4377 2416 on the meter keypad. If it shows 1 or 1.2, your meter needs to be reset or recorded. If it shows 2 or 2.2, your meter is already updated and requires no further action.”
He stated that prepaid users with further queries were encouraged to contact the municipality during office hours on 053 830 6488/6565/6585.
“Our call-centre can be reached on 080 122 9010 or 053 830 6111 and operates around the clock. Operators will respond duly to all enquiries,” Mothibi said.
