Qonce, Butterworth residents short-circuited by prepaid meter issues

Scores of frustrated Eskom clients in the Eastern Cape braved bad weather conditions last week with the hope of resolving issues with their new meter boxes.

The Dispatch spoke to residents in Butterworth and Qonce, who complained the token identifier codes given to update their meters did not work. Many queued for hours, but eventually left the Eskom offices after officials were unable to assist.

Some residents said they had been going back and forth for more than a month.

The recoding process, known as the Key Revision Number (KNR) rollover project, is expected to affect 6.9-million prepaid meters in Eskom-supplied areas. 

Failure to recode by the November 24 deadline will prevent Eskom customers from loading electricity tokens, rendering their meters inoperable.

Last month, the power utility claimed to have already prepared 97% of the meters by pre-coding them, making it simple for its customers to complete the process themselves.

The process requires customers to purchase credit tokens from authorised vendors, after which they will receive two sets of 20-digit codes to enter into their meters for the update.

In Qonce last week, villagers from surrounding areas who stood for hours outside in the rain, were left fuming when they received no joy in resolving the issues with their meters.

About seven of the residents who spoke to the Dispatch said they had spent close to R100 on taxi fare only to be turned back at the power utility’s offices in Qonce. Some claimed to have been without electricity for months due to this problem.

Nomaxabiso Lubelwana, 72, from KwaKhulile location in DebeNek, said she left her home at 3am last Tuesday to be first in the queue.

“I arrived here at 4.30am. I have been in this queue since then. We have been left in the rain unattended and no-one is saying anything,” she told the Dispatch. 

“I keep getting this number [code] for the meter to reload but nothing happens. It is my last time here. They said they would fix it by August 30 and nothing has changed.”

Zwelinzima Sindaphi from KwaMajali in Peelton said this was his second visit to the Eskom office in three weeks.

“I have been here to inquire about my meter registration. I paid R75 to travel here. I came here last time they said they don’t have network. I’ve been queuing since the morning.”

Buyiswa Nele from Ndileka location said she had been without electricity for two weeks.

“When I bought electricity, the meter said ‘not registered’, so I have been coming here for weeks and they keep saying their system is offline.”

Veronica Feni from KwaMbaxa location said she spent R56 to travel to the office.

“... the system is offline whenever I query about my registration. These lines are long and are not even moving,” she said.

Meanwhile, on Thursday in Butterworth, just over 100 villagers queued outside Eskom’s regional offices from as early as 5am over the same issues.

A government official who spoke to the Dispatch on condition of anonymity said there were no staff to serve them and clients were allegedly being referred to call centres.

The official claimed the codes most clients were given did not work and so they were forced to spend more nights in darkness.

“I don’t know how many times I’ve come here. I can’t work remotely as there are no lights and it has been weeks,” said the official. 

“At first I thought it was the vendor I bought it from; then I came here and they said I should do registration to update my meter. I was given a code and noticed still after following the instructions it did not work. 

“I told them about this, was given another one and still it did not work. Now I’m here. Luckily there is someone at home. I will send it [the code] as soon as I get the new one.”

Each credit token has a unique TID encoded in the 20 digits to prevent token replay at the meter.

The TID is referenced to a base date of 1993, and the power utility confirmed that there would be no extension to the deadline for the TID update, which ends in two weeks.

Eskom Eastern Cape spokesperson Zama Mpondwana told the Dispatch they were not aware that some customers had issues with their meters for a prolonged period.

“We are, however, aware that a number of grant recipients are in town recoding their meters to Key Revision Number 2 before the deadline of November 24.”

Mpondwana said the rollover to KRN2 was critical for customers to be able to buy and upload tokens after the deadline.

“This is an industry deadline; the meters have been on KRN1 since 1993.”

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