UPDATE: Total chaos and confusion over pre-paid meter cut off by Govan Mbeki Municipality
Council still does not share light on pre-paid cuts.
UPDATE: 15 May
A source told the Ridge Times this morning that at least 400 houses’ pre-paid electricity were cut in Secunda and more than a hundred in Trichardt.
He said pre-paid electricity was also cut in eMbalenhle and in Kinross.
The only comment that the municipality thus far has given about these actions, are these four sentences from Mr Henry Masango, head of Communications and Marketing:
“A massive cut-offs [sic] are implemented to address none-payments and electricity theft.
“The municipality will be rolling out split and smart metering system [sic].
“Meter boxes that were connected illegally are removed and owners are expected to pay a fine at the municipality.
“We advise residents to make arrangements at the municipal customer care office during office hours to be reconnected or to avoid being cut-off.”
Letter to Govan Mbeki Municipality.
This should have been the perfect time for those elected to represent the Govan Mbeki municipal community to talk with us.
You are however keeping quiet and are “in meetings” behind closed doors and are absolutely unavailable.
Even the municipal switchboard was unavailable today and I held on for 20 minutes and eventually put the phone down in frustration!
The problem?
Hundreds of residents who use pre-paid meters’ electricity was cut.
Some people’s pre-paid meter boxes were even “forcefully” taken down.
While it might be true that a large number of these residents’ municipal accounts were not paid up, therefore the desperate action of the municipality to cut off their electricity, I personally know of at least five people whose accounts were paid up to date whose electricity was cut.
The reason?
They make use of either gas or sun panels and their electricity consumption is not as high as previously shown.
The municipality therefore assumed they were stealing electricity!
One of these people got an attorney who arranged for his electricity to be reconnected immediately.
The others were not so lucky. They were sent from one municipal employee to the next.
One employee even abruptly ended a call.
Though the municipality acknowledged in one instance that they had made a mistake, the resident had to wait 24 hours for his electricity to be reconnected!
When I spoke with Mr Donald Green of the communications and marketing department this morning about a comment on the enquiries the Ridge Times had sent via email about these issues yesterday, he said we might get a response tomorrow (Friday).
I told him it was unacceptable, but he said he could do nothing because Council was in a meeting.
Where are our council respresentatives?
Talk to us and tell us what is happening!
Louisa Korb: Editor Echo/Ridge.
