Pretoria - South Africa’s capital city is replacing thousands of electricity meters after the high court ruled that the contract for their procurement was invalid, an official said on Thursday.
Cilliers Brink, member of the mayoral committee for the municipality of Tshwane, which incorporates the capital Pretoria, said the city did not want the meters provided by service provider Peu and its subsidiary TUMS .
The deal was reached by the ruling African National Congress which previously ran the municipality before Brink’s opposition Democratic Alliance took over last year.
“We propose to replace the almost 13 000 meters with our own to ensure value for money and that the people of Tshwane receive sustainable, reliable and affordable electricity supply," said Brink.
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The high court last month overturned all agreements between Peu/TUMS and the city, after an application brought by lobby groups AfriForum and AfriBusiness in 2013.
It ordered that the 950 million rand placed in a special trust account set up to purchase Peu's infrastructure be released to the municipality immediately.
Brink said the judgment was "a massive victory for clean tender processes, and value for ratepayers’ money".
Tshwane currently pays about R5 million to Peu and TUMS to manage the prepaid electricity meter system.
“The city hopes to be rid of Peu and their meters before the end of the current financial year in June 2018,” Brink said.