Enraged residents close down municipality over smart meter boxes

According to Khuduga Dibe, a community leader, the municipality installed the boxes without consulting the residents.

Modise Molefe, another community leader says one of the complaints the community has about them is the irritating sound they make when the number of units falls below 50. Because the meter box is linked to the water supply, he also sees it as an injustice to the people in that you won’t be able to have running water to drink or cook if you don’t have electricity.

He added that the community is demanding Eskom boxes instead of ones that use Vodacom sim cards.

Members of the community chased the officials out of their offices on Monday and closed down the offices for two days. Molefe says they took advantage of an opportunity to raise their grievances with the NW premier, Supra Mahumapelo when he was in Venterdorp for another event on Wednesday.

‘He has promised to meet with the community on Monday,’ he said.

Diba says this protest demonstrated that the amalgamation of the two municipalities has only served to destroy and not uplift the people. ‘The service delivery challenges have been even worse since the merger and this is a direct threat to human life. We will soon be mobilising to call for the reversal of this decision,’ he said.

Another resident says there is nothing wrong with the electricity meter boxes except for the irritating sound. ‘There are fewer than 30 boxes installed in Ventersdorp. The people who were protesting do not have them in their homes. They should have chased the project officials away rather than close down the municipality,’ he said.

Hans-Jurie Moolman, the DA Caucus chairperson, says nothing about this service provider of smart meters was tabled before the council.

‘It is important for us to see the agreement between the council and the service provider. I don’t know who the new company is and what process was followed in appointing them,’ he said.

Moolman is concerned about the contract that these smart meter service providers usually enter into with municipalities. ‘They charge a percentage of the amount that they invoice and not necessarily the amount that they collect. They charge fees and commission based upon the amount displayed on the invoices. This will end up in the same way as the smart meter system in Tshwane,’ he said.

Moolman believes the councillors in Ventersdorp should have been informed about these smart meters in advance so they could have addressed the community concerns right away.