Increase in tampering with prepaid electricity meters in South Africa

According to TimesLive, cities such as the City of Cape Town are experiencing a rise in tampering with prepaid electricity meters. This statement comes from Xanthea Limberg, the City’s mayoral committee member for energy, following last week’s significant court ruling against illegal Eskom tariff increases planned for 2024.

As reported by The South African, the dismissal of the National Energy Regulator’s (NERSA’s) appeal effectively makes July’s 12.8% municipal tariff increase illegal. And civil rights organisation AfriForum says millions of electricity users are therefore entitled to a refund. However, this outcome could severely impact poorly governed and cash-strapped local municipalities.

PREPAID ELECTRICITY METER TAMPERING

At the same time, you’ve got Eskom celebrating 150 days without loadshedding. And concerns over a lights-out warning for South Africa, with millions of prepaid electricity meters still in need of an urgent update. Essentially, every prepaid electricity machine that’s not updated with a special Token Identifier (TID) before Monday 24 November 2024 (24/11/24) will cease to function. And if enough of them go un-updated, experts believe it could knockout the entire grid.

With just 90 days to go till the deadline it’s understood, according to the SALGA service delivery website, that 30 000 prepaid meters need to be updated every single day. In other terms, that’s 500 every hour for the next 90 days. If yours is not updated as yet, you should contact your local municipality urgently for the 20-digit tokens you require. Enter the first one of the 20-digit recode tokens and wait for it to be accepted. Then you’ll enter a second set of 20 digits. Wait for it to be accepted. Finally, purchase and load a top-up electricity voucher to see if it’s worked. It’s that simple …

RESIDENTS FEELING THE STRAIN

Nevertheless, Prepaid electricity meter tampering and illegal connections are on the rise and could have dire consequences. Firstly, residents are feeling the pinch of the illegal Eskom tariff increases, forcing many to apply for indigent benefits just to keep the lights on (30% of Western Cape residents qualify for free basic electricity benefits). And tampering with a machine or attempting to input fraudulent electricity tokens will only compromise the greater grid system.

Last week, the City of Cape Town revealed that as many as 12 000 meters had been tampered with. Mostly in low-income areas like Lavender Hill, which has been protesting high energy costs. Limberg said: “The city has observed a notable increase in prepaid electricity meter tampering cases. It is our view this is driven by unaffordable and unconscionable electricity tariff hikes proposed by Eskom and approved by NERSA.”