Tshwane metro is paying the suppliers of the long-awaited smart meters on average R4,2 million a day without receiving satisfaction that the company is adhering to its obligations.
The metro is in possession of documentation underscoring the fact that huge amounts of money are paid monthly to PEU and that these amounts are bound to increase with the further roll-out of meters.
Tshwane metro spokesperson Selby Bokaba said the metro was locked in internal discussions on the issue.
“Once consensus about this has been reached, the roll-out of the new smart meters will be explained to the media,” he said.
The roll-out of the new smart meters caused a wave of uncertainty as to how and when this would happen and what residents had to do to register.
Prior to the roll-out, the metro went to great lengths in informing residents how it would be done, by whom and how technicians will be identified.
This did not turn out as envisaged and in enquiring about this Rekord was told that residents did not need to worry since the switch-on of the meters would only happen some time later in the year.
The confusion was aggravated by mayor Kgosientso Ramokgopa’s admittance that PEU the contractors of the smart meters, was not complying with their obligations and that the city was losing an average of R4.3 million daily with the contract.
The fall-out came because of the over-expenditure on budget for the first six months of this financial year of R230.6 million in commission to PEU and the fact that there has been no advantage received by the city from this contract.
An additional R300 million debit impairment was required in order to cover bad debt for the first six month period.
Subesh Pillay, MMC for Economic development corroborated this.
“There was a court action against the company which meant that they could not roll out meters as promised and as a result of that we are not collecting revenue at the pace in which we thought and planned for,” he said.
“So what the mayor asked, is that the city manager must see how we can get out of the contract, because so long as what this is caught up in court action, which can last anything from two to three years, we will not be able to move and we are going to continue to lose revenue.”
The idea was to find some settlement with the company, said Pillay.
It was pointed out to Rekord that PEU had to install 2 700 meters a day every day of the year if it wanted to comply with its undertaking in the contract.
Rekord was told no information would be conveyed until internal deliberations on the matter had been completed.
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