Cape Town - Prepaid electricity and water meter users have been urged to update their devices before they stop working on November 24.
The update was urgently required as the standard system that provided unique re-charge codes would soon run out of unique numbers to issue, Finance and Economic Opportunities MEC Mireille Wenger cautioned.
Failure to complete the reset will leave residents unable to buy electricity and municipalities unable to generate revenue from the sale of prepaid electricity or water, she said.
“Households, businesses and communities across the country face being completely cut off from electricity and water if they don’t update their prepaid meters.
“The blackout is looming unless pre-paid users reset their meters, using a unique code, which will be issued in line with each municipality’s approach to the reset process.
“The Provincial Treasury has gathered all the contact details for the relevant official in each municipality so residents are able to contact them with any queries they may have.
“This contact list can be found on the Western Cape Government website,” Wenger said.
Wenger warned that delayed updating of pre-paid meters could jeopardise the financial sustainability of local governments and negatively impact residents relying on municipal services.
“I want to urge every resident who uses a pre-paid meter to look out for communication from their municipality on the reset process and their specific timelines.
“When prompted, residents can complete the process by simply inputting a special token code that is issued with pre-paid electricity purchases.
“It’s a once-off entry, done in the same simple way as loading a pre-paid electricity code.
“If you’re not seeing the code, or if you are experiencing difficulty to get the code to work, please contact your local municipality immediately for assistance,” Wenger said.
Municipalities in the Western Cape have started helping residents to update their meters.
“With an estimated 1 047 682 municipal meters in the province, approximately 82.5% of households have completed the reset, compared with 51.0% nationally.
“Cape Agulhas Municipality is the first Western Cape municipality to complete the reset and several other municipalities in the Western Cape are also on the verge of completing the process,” Wenger said.
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