20.04.2025
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Prepaid meter customers have until 8.15pm to re-code

4 mins



  • A prepaid electricity meter

3 minutes

Eskom has given prepaid customers 20:15 (quarter-past eight) tonight as the deadline for upgrading their electricity meters, failing which they will not be able to recharge.

The power utility says most prepaid electricity customers had re-coded their meters by June, 2024.

Eskom has given reprieve to zero-buyers who will re-code their meters without penalties, and says these customers can still go to their legal vending sites with their meter numbers to buy electricity.

Vending agents will then issue them with their Key Change Tokens to make their meters KRN2 compliant.

Prepaid Meters | 6.9 million users urged to upgrade:

Eskom spokesperson Daphne Mokwena says the meter upgrade will not affect customers who are using electricity illegally.

“The process starts with you buying electricity. So if you are not buying electricity you won’t get those tokens that enable you to update your meter. Our buying customers have done this process from May/June, we were sitting at about 4 million, currently we are sitting at 5.28 million but most of our customers completed this process by May/June.

So the problem is the non-buying customers and I think they probably thought that this won’t affect them. And I know that most of the customers are saying that we did not communicate enough, but you know the other question is: if I am using electricity illegally, would I really listen to whatever communique that goes out?” adds Mokwena.

Meanwhile, the Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (OUTA) CEO, Wayne Duvenage, has conceded that the public leaves essential matters to the last minute.

“Generally, we as the public wait until the last hour, not realizing that this needs to be done in time and then the rush comes and I think, on the other side, it comes down to the authorities. Was there enough communication done, have they put in place enough processes to make sure it gets done? And now I see that the deadline has been moved out which creates other expectations and problems. But I guess they have to do that, if there’s not enough people that have switched over to the new system then it’s going to be a problem. We cannot just have electricity cut off at the end of today.”

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