Councillors and smart meter service provider BXC are apparently being flooded by requests for smart meter installations in SE7 –  where Police and the municipal By-Law units were deployed in full force this week to ensure safety.

SE 7 is a suburb with a 40% electricity bypass or illegal connection rate, which places the entire electricity infrastructure in danger of imminent collapse, experts and councillors have said.

During Monday night, branches and black rubbish bags were deployed as barricades by small group of residents in a futile attempt to prevent smart meter installations, said BXC Project Manager Dawid Dirks.

“BXC and I would like to thank the vast majority of residents who want to pay and receive electricity, which will only be reliable with smart meters,” said Dirks.

Smart meters are also to said to be installed to side-step ELM’s corrupt and over-inflated paper-based billing system.

Digital giant Vodacom has also entered the smart meter arena in Emfuleni, but has not yet deployed service providers or started its intervention. Vodacom and BXC will install smart meters in different areas within Emfuleni.

Experts and politicians have said that the SE7 situation exploded the myth that only townships were responsible for power theft – and also showed that installing smart meters was the best all-round solution to normalise the situation for business and residents.

Yvonne Coertze, DA Councillor for Ward 9 including SE 7 said she and most residents supported smart meters, because their installation would prevent power theft from collapsing the electricity infrastructure and ensure that those who paid for electricity in fact received it.