With just a few days left before the cut-off day to upgrade prepaid electricity meters, Elizabeth Kunene, 62, had to sleep outside Eskom's offices in Zola, Soweto, on Monday night.
Kunene was one of hundreds of people from Soweto who had to queue for long hours to have their prepaid meters upgraded ahead of the November 24 deadline. Prepaid meters consumers for both Eskom and City Power have until Sunday to upgrade their them for free or face the possibility of paying up to R12,000 for a replacement meter.
Kunene, from Braamfischerville, arrived at Zola offices at 12 midnight on Monday to secure a space in the queue, but when she got there already scores of people were in the queue, some covered in blankets.
She spent 14 hours waiting for her turn as Eskom's computer system was allegedly slow and sometimes went off-line.
Sowetan spoke to her in the afternoon on Tuesday while she was still waiting her turn to be assisted.
"I had to use a taxi to come here and I am still in the queue. When I got here there were people who had slept here since 7pm on Monday. We are not even sure if they will assist us ... apparently there are only two people working inside. We are in panic,” said Kunene.
Most of the people who had queued with her were elderly who said they found the process tedious and confusing.
Minah Mbele, 67, from Snake Park said the Eskom office close to her house could not assist them and they were referred to Zola. "Our ward councillor said he'd inquire with Eskom about the problem but he hasn't come back to us hence we ended up here," said Mbele.
City Power and Eskom introduced the new prepaid system last year and it was, among other things, to fight meter tempering and the buying of illegal electricity tokens. The re-coded meters have a feature which alerts power utilities to any tempering of the box.
"Eskom has plans to sustain the rapid prepayment meter recoding process to ensure that all our prepayment electricity meters are recoded before the deadline. Some of these plans involve auditing and fixing meters that are faulty, bypassed or not buying," said Eskom Group Executive for Distribution, Monde Bala, in a statement this week.
To date, City Power has recoded 99% of their clients while Eskom has more than 6,9-million prepaid clients countrywide. The national campaign to upgrade has now intensified as the deadline looms.
Long queues were also seen outside Eskom Midway offices in Soweto yesterday morning. Most of them came from Tshiawelo, Protea North and Dlamini and had been there as early as 3am and were still in queue by midday.
Refilwe Khumalo, 65, had to go back home to get another lunchbox as she had been in the queue since the early hours of the morning. She also had to buy a chair as standing was taking a toll on her.
I got here around 6am and I went back home at 9am to go get my lunchbox and buy a chair because I had been standing in the sun for hours without any assistance.
— Refilwe Khumalo
“I got here around 6am and I went back home at 9am to go get my lunchbox and buy a chair because I had been standing in the sun for hours without any assistance. I had to use a taxi to go home and come back here,” she said.
According to the residents who have been assisted, only four people were helping them inside as the system kept going offline and they had to wait until the network was back.
“We risk our lives being in the streets around this time (4am) because these nyaope boys will rob us. I waited for 30 minutes to be served and only four people are helping inside. Their computers are very slow and I had to wait again for them to come back online,” said James Hlongwane, 71.
City Power spokesperson Issac Mangena said although they have converted most of the city's meters, they still experienced challenges in places like Alexandra, were 87% of the households have upgraded.
"One of the primary obstacles faced by City Power in Alexandra has been gaining access to homes for meter audits. However, through collaborative efforts with local ward councillors, we have successfully resumed the installation of smart meters in areas such as Juskei River, Eastbank and Westbank.
Challenges were also experienced in places like Makhanda municipality in the Eastern Cape, and two other local authorities were red-flagged by Eskom during a parliamentary project oversight committee meeting recently for the delayed implementation of the rollover project.
Last week, Sowetan sister publication the Dispatch reported that 6,846 Eskom customers in Makana ran the risk of not being able to load electricity after the cut-off date.
To check whether your meter has been recoded/upgraded to KRN2 or is still on KRN1, please enter the code 1844 6744 0738 4377 2416 on your prepaid meter’s keypad. The screen will display either the number 1 or 2, and in some cases, there may also be alphabetic letters alongside the KRN number.
Number 1 means your meter is still on KRN1 and needs to be recoded/upgraded to KRN2.
Get your two key change tokens from your local or online vendor when Eskom prompts you that your area is active and follow these steps:
Step1
Key in the first 20 digits of your recode token and wait for it to be accepted.
Step2
Key in the second 20 digits of your recode token and wait for it to be accepted.
Step 3
Very important last step, key in the digits of your purchased token to recharge your meter.
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