A STERN warning has been sent to electricity zero buyers to hurry up and update their prepaid meters by visiting their nearest Eskom sites before December 13.
Eskom said zero buyers who bought electricity tokens before the deadline on November 24, but could not load them, needed to come back to their offices by December 13.
Also read: Deadline for prepaid electricity meters looms
People who have bypassed their meters will receive fines
Zero buyers who bought electricity before the deadline but have meter-related matters such as a lost, bypassed or tampered meter, must go to Eskom centres by December 13. According to Eskom, the fine for tampering with an electricity meter is R6 000 per tampered meter.
Eskom said individual situations would be assessed, tamper fines issued (if warranted) and meter updates and replacement would then be scheduled.
Recommended actions to be taken:
- All paying customers who bought electricity before the deadline and who have KRN 2 compliant metres will be assisted to complete the process if they are having difficulty. These customers are advised to use Alfred – the Chatbot
- Those zero buyers who bought electricity before the deadline and are unable to load their meters, need to bring their slips/token to the nearest Eskom Hub by December 13.
- Zero buyers who bought electricity before the deadline but have a meter-related matter such as a lost, bypassed or tampered meter, must go to their Eskom centres by December 13. Their individual situations will be assessed, tamper fines issued (if warranted) and meter updates and replacement will then be scheduled.
- Those who have come forward but did not buy or attempt to buy electricity tokens by November 24 are encouraged to buy electricity tokens before December 13. Their meters will be audited and tamper fines and meter replacement costs would be assessed and issued accordingly. They can come forward anytime.
eThekwini Municipality completed the Token Identifier ahead of the November 24 deadline
eThekwini Municipality has announced that it successfully completed the Token Identifier (TID) rollover for all active prepaid electricity meters ahead of the November 24 deadline.
“While there were moments of concern among customers as the deadline approached, the municipality’s dedicated team provided extensive support to address enquiries and to facilitate a smooth transition. Furthermore, this process has allowed the municipality to identify a significant number of inactive prepaid electricity meters,” eThekwini said in a statement.
Also read: Changes to electricity meters in South Africa
Eskom said in a statement that following the November 24 deadline, the key initial findings indicate:
- Starting off with a customer base of 6.91 million prepaid customers, all customers have been converted to Key Reversion Number (KRN) 2. A data cleaning exercise fully updated the incomplete details of 341,000 customers to bring Eskom’s base to 7.25 million.
- As of November 24, approximately 5.5 million customers (which includes around 400,000 zero buyers who have become paying customers) have successfully rolled over and are transacting on KRN 2.
- Eskom is currently observing a decrease in the zero buyer numbers to around 1.7 million from the previous 12-month rolling average of 2.1 million.
Plans are afoot to investigate inactive prepaid meters in eThekwini
Those with inactive prepaid electricity meters will find themselves on the wrong side of the law as eThekwini has developed a comprehensive plan to investigate the identified inactive meters and normalise their connections.
To download the Alfred brochure click here.
Eskom continues to offer assistance to the public
Eskom asks paying customers who are experiencing issues to first use Alfred, the Chatbot, Eskom Contact Centre: Interactive Voice Response (IVR) or WhatsApp.
- Alfred the Chatbot www.alfred.eskom.co.za/chatroom/
- Eskom Contact Centre: Interactive Voice Response (IVR)
- WhatsApp 087 741 1922
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