Metro installs free prepaid meters in Minnebron

The Herald received several inquiries from residents, who feared that criminals may be posing as council workers in order to gain access to their properties.

Grant Appelgren, a resident of Freel Street, who recently received a notice from council informing him of the installation, contacted the Herald when he could not verify its authenticity.

“I could not confirm this with anyone at the Brakpan Civic Centre, as the listed numbers just ring and get cut off” he said.

“Surely the council is meant to send out official notifications that they are installing free meters for the residents of Brakpan, or did I miss this?”

Lebogang Ramashala, media officer for the metro, confirmed that prepaid meters are currently being installed in the Minnebron area.

“We have been experiencing difficulty in maintaining existing electricity metering enclosures due to vandalism, illegal re-connection and tampering with electricity meters, which resulted in open, unsafe electricity boxes,” she said.

“In our effort to ensure that our electricity pillar boxes are properly closed and to achieve a high standard of electricity supply it was resolved that existing metering enclosures must be replaced with robust steel ‘protective structures’, in order to prevent further interference within these enclosures.

“Unfortunately, the installation of protective structures will deny access to meter readers to read the existing conventional meters, creating an inconvenience to customers when they receive accounts with estimated (‘interim’) readings.

“The decision was then taken to replace all existing conventional meters with a prepayment meter, at no cost to the consumer”.