New electricity meters boost municipality’s revenue

Govan Mbeki Municipality Mayor Nhlakanipho Zuma told the council the municipality is generating revenue since installing electricity smart meters, and its electricity losses dropped from 74% to 54%.

According to Zuma, the municipality has installed more than 26 500 pre-paid electricity meters out of an estimated 44 000 to date, with only 17 000 meters still needing converting.

“In regions 1 and 3, which include Bethal, eMzinoni and eMbalenhle, we collected about R34m by the end of this August.

“Compared to previous years, where we collected revenue of less than R5m, this is a significant improvement that will make it easy for us to service our Eskom account to become a reliable customer and able to supply sustainable electricity,” said Zuma.

He said previously that Bethal and eMzinoni faced power supply challenges that left them without electricity for a few hours. However, their situation has changed.

The mayor reckons the municipality will not meet its target of installing meters for all residents by November 24, and they will introduce a parallel programme to change the existing meters’ codes for those with old meters so they can buy electricity.

Zuma also said previously that SA’s technological advancement had led the municipality to the end of 30 years since the introduction of the current pre-paid meters, which means a new code must be put in each meter for it to function.

People still using the old meters will be unable to load electricity by the end of November.

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