Johannesburg's City Power said it will no longer respond to outage calls from non-paying customers and customers with non-vending meters. Image: iStock
Outstanding debt amounting to an eyewatering R10 billion, coupled with pressures of the grid amid load shedding, have sparked City Power’s decision to no longer respond to outage calls from defaulting and non-paying customers in areas across Johannesburg.
According to the electrical entity’s spokesperson Isaac Mangena, City Power is currently conducting an auditing process of customers’ meters to trace their vending history.
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The entity will only dispatch teams to attend to power outage calls if at least 70% of the customers in an area with a medium voltage (MV) outage are paying for their electricity.
“For this reason, we have embarked on a city-wide programme to ensure we get as many
citizens as possible to pay for their electricity services – those who can. For those that
can’t, the City has programmes to assist the indigent residents,” the spokesperson said in a statement on Tuesday.
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Mangena explained that, according to the Local Government: Municipal Systems Management Act, City Power is within its right to ensure it installs the prepaid meters for the purposes of revenue collection on behalf of the City.
City Power is working towards “normalising” electricity Token Identifier (TID) meters in Johannesburg and cleaning up its data to ensure unmetered customers, “especially in non-affluent areas, have smart meters that will enable them to not only buy electricity, but also to assist City Power to remotely monitor and control the load as we battle with load shedding”.
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Mangena appealed to the city’s residents for their cooperation in allowing officials to gain access to their properties to audit and normalise meters.
“These audits will be vital in preparation for the TID rollover as some of the meters cannot be reprogrammed.
“The TID resetting entails that every non-smart (old technology) meter should be replaced with the new technology meters. These old technology meters will stop accepting the credit tokens by November 2024 as the credit token will run out of available numbers.”
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Mangena said City Power had already informed the residents of Naturena, in the south of Johannesburg, of their decision not to respond to electricity outages in the area “until our teams are allowed to come and normalise the area to ensure revenue collection is enhanced”.
He said the residents were given until Friday to allow a City Power access to audit meters.
“Should the resistance continue, we will no longer respond to power outages in Naturena from 12 May 2023,” the spokesperson concluded.
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In recent months, City Power embarked on an aggressive Revenue Collection drive to
collect money across all our customers in the City. This is about R10bn we are owed by
the residents of the City of Joburg.
In addition, City Power has embarked on a programme to audit and normalise meters
across the seven Regions of the City of Joburg, which will also involve the resetting of the
meters to be TID compliant ahead of the 2024 November deadline. The programme will
also assist City Power to clean up its data and ensure unmetered customers, especially
in non-affluent areas, have smart meters which will enable them to, not only buy
electricity, but to also assist City Power to remotely monitor and control the load as we
battle with load-shedding.
Customers with bridged or bypassed meters, as well as defaulting customers are
encouraged to visit their nearest Service Delivery Centre (SDC) to make payment
arrangements that are available to our customers.
We further appeal to residents for cooperation and to allow our officials to gain access to
their properties when they come to audit and normalise meters. As these audits will be
vital in the preparation for the TID rollover as some of the meters cannot be
reprogrammed.
The TID resetting entails that every non-smart (old Technology) meter should be replaced
with the new technology meters. These old technology meters will stop accepting the
credit tokens by November 2024 as the credit token will run out of available numbers.
City Power has already written to the residents of Naturena informing them of our
decision not to respond to electricity outages in their area until our teams are allowed to
come and normalise the area to ensure revenue collection is enhanced. The residents
have been given until Friday to allow our team in to audit meters.
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Should the resistance continue, we will no longer respond to power outages in Naturena
from the 12th May 2023.
ENDS
Issued by City Power
Isaac Mangena, Spokesperson