Eskom warns Soweto residents to choose prepaid meters

SOWETANS should allow Eskom officials to install pre-paid meters in communities or risk being cut off from power supply this winter, Eskom said yesterday.

Eskom Gauteng spokesperson Amanda Qithi said the utility’s workers were being threatened and, in some cases, beaten by residents for trying to install. Qithi said this week the community of Moletsane in Soweto was a non-paying area and Eskom had no choice but to move from conventional electricity to split metering.

Cape Argus sister paper The Star understands Soweto already owed Eskom about R4 billion. The last debt Soweto had which also rose to over R1bn had been written off by the power utility.

“If they don’t allow us to convert them, we will unfortunately switch off supply. We are installing split meters all over Gauteng, we are converting all our customers who are on conventional to pre-paid. So, it’s just not in Soweto or in Moletsane,” Qithi said.

Qithi said Soweto should not think of itself as being different from other poor townships in the province. She said debt collection was important for the smooth running of the power utility. She said the advantage of pre-paid meters was that customers would be able to manage their electricity usage.

“Eskom is a business and we have to spend money to generate electricity. We cannot as Eskom provide free electricity.”