With over 2 million households still having to fulfil Eskom's Sunday deadline, scores of Soweto prepaid electricity users are irate after waiting for hours to upgrade their meters.
The deadline to update their prepaid meters is November 24.
Many individuals waiting in long lines outside the Eskom branch in Zola, Soweto, were visibly frustrated by the current deadline.
With no shade and unpleasant sewer spillages on the streets, they expressed their willingness to update their meters—provided an extension to the deadline was granted.
They waited in line for hours, which was deemed intolerable, in an attempt to prevent power outages when the new system was put into place.
The upgrade process should not require customers to visit Eskom offices; however, it seems that many are encountering difficulties.
Eskom introduced a system to suppress the illegal buying of prepaid electricity tokens from unauthorised vendors.
This is also to help the power utility to constantly supply electricity without any restrictions or loss from their end.
On Wednesday morning, Electricity and Energy Minister Dr. Kgosientsho Ramokgopa confirmed that no extension will be granted for prepaid electricity consumers to re-code their meters if they fail to do so by the deadline.
Ramokgopa briefed the media on the pre-paid meter re-coding as well as the Integrated Resource Plan.
During the briefing, Ramokgopa emphasised that Eskom has made significant efforts to inform consumers about the upgrades, including extending its working hours to accommodate them.
“It is not extendable, we can’t extend it, it’s a technical issue. So it’s a hard stop. If you have not re-coded, then you are sitting with a different problem,” he maintained.
Speaking to IOL, Caroline Mbambo expressed her displeasure with queue congestion mentioning that this was not good for them as elderly residents.
“These people could have just sent people to our homes so that they can help us without a hassle. Yes, it is a good initiative but at what cost? We cannot, we have been here for long,” she said.
Arthur Mokone said those showed how incompetent the state can be at times.
“Imagine standing in the queue and there’s a sewer running down just across the street. As much as we want to comply, we also need service delivery,” he said.
kamogelo.moichela@iol.co.za
IOL Politics