City Power extends grace period on penalty fees for non-vending meters

25 November 2024 - 07:46
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Soweto residents in long queues to get their prepaid meters updated. File photo.
Soweto residents in long queues to get their prepaid meters updated. File photo.
Image: VELI NHLAPO

City Power has extended the grace period for nonpayment of penalty fees for non-vending meters to November 30.

The city’s power utility said all its vending prepaid customers had their meters recorded ahead of Sunday’s deadline.

City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena said the city had seen an influx of previously non-vending customers at service delivery centres (SDCs), specially in Lenasia and Alexandra, seeking assistance ahead of Sunday’s cut-off date. 

He said the utility will continue to assist customers to recode their meters beyond November 24.

“City Power has pre-generated key change tokens for outstanding non-vending customers. This will enable us to assist in converting prepaid meters after tonight’s deadline. We have deployed more teams to collect the information of all customers who are in queues. We will arrange for our technicians to visit them from this week to install new meters and replace those that have been tampered with at no fee. For those who are at home, there is no need to rush to the SDCs,” Mangena said.

He said municipal vending machines will be able to generate key change tokens until May 31  2025 though the cut-off date for upgrading the metering code is November 24 2024.

“City Power will be able to generate the three 20-number digit tokens used to convert a meter from KRN1 to KRN2. The extension covers customers who may have previously received the key change tokens but lost them before punching them into the meter. It also applies to vending customers who may not have had a chance to upgrade their prepaid meters.”

“It’s important to note unconverted meters will cease loading electricity units. But due to the extension, those customers can visit our SDCs from tomorrow and new key change tokens will be provided to enable the upgrade,” he said.

Mangena  urged customers to use the utility's telephone numbers 011-490-7484 or toll-free +27-80-020-2925 to call and leave their details for technicians to attend to them. 

TimesLIVE


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