Some residents in EC village say they unaware of prepaid recoding

With less than two days left for the deadline for prepaid electricity users to recode their meter numbers, some residents in the rural town of Ngqeleni in Eastern Cape are calling for power utility Eskom to extend the deadline.

The villagers say they were given short notice, while some claim they were not even aware of the recoding of their numbers.

The residents of Mqwangqweni village are fully aware of the looming deadline, but despite that, they are busy with their household chores, with some ploughing their gardens.

Others have already recoded their meter numbers but they are still experiencing challenges punching in electricity, as Lindiwe Mpetshwa and Lungelwa Sokhuthu explain.

“Even when you buy electricity and get a slip, you find that the Eskom card is not working. Eskom must come here and tell us why our cards are not working anymore after they introduced this recoding thing. Eskom please help us or we will die of hunger here.”

“I was given the 20 numbers but still I have problems loading my meter number in the meter box. Eskom must please help us. Our children cannot even watch TV because our TV sets are no longer working as we do not have electricity. We are in trouble here. Even this deadline of theirs is short notice. They caught us off guard.”

Other residents like Siviwe Qaka see this as an infringement on their rights.

“This is all unfair because I only heard about this in October and they said the deadline is in November. I saw it on TikTok and that’s not a platform for everyone. At the end of the day this is meant for our mothers and fathers. I see this as an infringement of our parents’ rights because they have a right to have electricity in their homes.”

There are also residents, who claim they did not even know about the recoding of prepaid meter numbers.

Nontsikelelo Ludidi and Mphuthumi Kholwane are now calling for the power utility to give them more time.

“They must extend it. At least if they can give us until the 10th or 15th of December. And I think it’s very wrong of Eskom to give us Sunday as the deadline because many people have not yet filled the forms and I am one of those. So this will be a huge blow to us if they say we will not have electricity after Sunday.”

“This was a short notice. I wish the company could extend the deadline so that even those who are not aware are made aware.”

On Wednesday, Electricity and Energy Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa said that no extension will be granted.