Apart from the long queues and Eskom’s urgent final warning to all prepaid users in the country to recode their meter or lose functionality, there is a litany of problems that consumers have to face.
Some consumers in Limpopo said they were unable to recode their meter because they were yet to be reconnected to the grid after being cut off during a cable theft incident.
On Saturday, Sunday World spoke to Maropeng Teffo of Kalksruit in Mashashane, who expressed her frustration over Eskom’s alleged constant failure to reconnect her after the notorious Izinyoka cut off her cable in December 2022.
Has been without electricity for two years
“I want to do this recoding thing which Eskom tells us it is compulsory for all electricity users. My cable was stolen almost two years ago and I have been pleading with them to reconnect me. I have been to their offices several times but nothing positive came out of those useless meetings. “I can’t just give up because I have heard that there will be penalties should one fail to recode the meter,” she said.
However, there are those who owe Eskom huge debts and are unsure what step to take.
Job Seakamela, of Metz village in Mankweng, said he owes Eskom over R10,000.
“I have been inundated with debts over the past few years and Eskom is among my many overdue accounts. I want to recode my meter but I am not sure if I will be able to do so. I am even embarrassed to go and present my case at their offices. However, today I am going to try my luck in those long queues. I am just hoping that they will allow me to recode the meter and I will see how I settle my bill even though I am struggling to make ends meet,” he said.
Buying electricity from illegal vendors
A consumer, who spoke to Sunday World on the basis of anonymity, said she is not going to recode her meter because she has been buying electricity from dodgy merchants.
“I face a huge dilemma here… For over five years I have been buying units from someone at a relatively low price. Now Eskom just wants to complicate our lives with this recoding. I am scared that they could detect that my meter is loaded with units that are not theirs and this could result in a huge problem,” she said.
Another anonymous consumer said he was not prepared to visit Eskom offices because he is illegally connected.
“I have been unable to buy electricity since I lost my job during Covid-19 so I was forced to cut some of the expenses and going the illegal connection route was the only choice I had. I cannot go and incriminate myself, so I am not going. I’ll just wait and see,” he said.
Meters could go bust
Meters still using Key Revision Number 1 will no longer accept electricity tokens from Monday.
This means that once your current credit is depleted, your meter will become inoperable, necessitating a replacement that could cost you up to R12,000.
