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Owner with her prepaid meter in a house.
Electricity and Energy Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa says Eskom will extend working hours to accommodate customers who still need to update their prepaid electricity meters.
He announced this while visiting Eskom offices in Soweto.
Johannesburg’s City Power says it will also extend it’s working hours.
City Power says it is left with just over 1 000 customers requiring upgrades, the majority of whom are in Alexandra.
Ramokgopa says they’ve also brought in additional staff.
“We are doing our best as you can see that people are panicking in their large numbers but from our side we have increased capacity, additional work staff and we’re also extending the hours to operate until very late to ensure that we accommodate as many people as possible and of course we will be open on Saturday and Sunday so that we are able to address the situation.”
Meanwhile, Eskom customers in Soweto say the power utility failed to prioritise old people during the meter update process.
Hundreds of customers continue to stand in long queues at Eskom offices in the township to update their prepaid meters ahead of the Sunday deadline.
Customers complain of waiting in queues without access to water or ablution facilities.
Resident Buti Baloyi says, “This people they should have used some other method to of trying to get this thing in a proper way because come to think of it they’ve got older people here and some of them are sick and some of them are disabled. They were not supposed to bring them here, why they didn’t use other method like they used to do when they want votes going door to door, they have failed us.”
Prepaid Meters | Soweto residents scramble to have meters recoded
