Eskom’s prepaid meter conversion uncovers 400 000 ‘new’ customers

The scramble that resulted in snaking lines at Eskom centres across the country for recoding of prepaid meters unearthed 400 000 customers who were not paying for power.

As of Sunday’s deadline, about 5.5 million customers, including the almost 400 000 zero buyers, or nonpayers, successfully rolled over and are now transacting on key revision number KRN2.

Dan Marokane, group chief executive, said: “The result of this technology changeover has brought Eskom around 400 000 previous zero buyers to become new paying customers and provided us with a wealth of data to bring further zero buyers into legitimately purchasing electricity.

400k ‘new’ Eskom customers

“Eskom is doing everything that is practically possible to make users of electricity pay for it in the interest of those who already pay, maintain the sustainability of Eskom to drive economic growth and reduce our burden on the taxpayer.”

Eskom’s customer base, which stood at 6.91 million prepaid customers who converted to KRN, has grown to 7.25 million, following the conversion.

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Eskom says it is seeing a decrease in users not paying for electricity from the previous 12-month, rolling average of 2.1 million to now about 1.7 million zero buyers.

Electricity and Energy Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa said Eskom lost R30 billion annually due to non-payment.

Long lines could still be seen at several Eskom centres since Monday, after the power utility extended its deadline for customers to purchase new tokens and activate the KRN2.

Long lines at centres since Monday

According to the utility, the customers were classified as having not been buying tokens for six or more months for several reasons, including damaged meters, illegal connections and using non-approved tokens.

“Zero buyers who bought electricity before the deadline but have a meter-related matter such as a lost, bypassed, or tampered meter, must come forward at Eskom centres by 13 December. Their individual situations will be assessed, tamper fines issued if required and meter updates and replacements will then be scheduled,” it said.

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Ramokgopa, who appeared before parliament, said if the 1.7 million customers were not brought on board, the utility would lose about R2 billion every month.

The utility warned that zero buyers who failed to recode their meters still had until mid-December to resolve their matters. The utility previously threatened to impose a R12 000 fine for customers who failed to convert their meters to the new system.

Last week, thousands of panicked people flocked to their nearest Eskom or municipal offices to update their prepaid meters before the deadline, some sleeping outside the utility to beat the lines.

Joseph Fikile Busakwe died in line

The chaos led to the death of 59-year-old Joseph Fikile Busakwe, who died in line to have his meter upgraded in Orlando East, Soweto.

“In the past 10 days, we saw zero buyers coming forward in huge numbers wanting to buy electricity and do the right thing. We will continue to treat these users with dignity and respect as we resolve these issues for all of those who did the right thing,” said Monde Bala, Eskom’s group executive for distribution.

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“We also acknowledge that this was a complex process presenting a challenging set of issues and was at times fraught and we continue to monitor and stabilise the system to ensure a smooth customer experience.”