Buying prepaid electricity in Tshwane this long weekend? Here’s why it won’t show

The City of Tshwane has warned residents that it will shut down the network and hosting equipment supporting its Internet-related services this weekend.

The downtime is scheduled to start this Thursday, 8 August 2024, at 4 pm and is expected to end on Sunday, 11 August 2024, at 6 am. Some services might be restored by Saturday afternoon, depending on SITA’s progress, it said.

The shutdown will affect the city’s website, email, electricity vending, and internet access.

You can buy electricity but it won’t show

The City said that residents will still be able to buy electricity but if bought after 4 pm on Thursday, it will now show on meters.

“Prepaid electricity users are urged to buy and upload enough power for the long weekend by
Thursday afternoon.

“Vending will not be impacted by the downtime as prepaid electricity sales
in the City are done on a third-party system.

“This means that customers will be able to buy electricity, however, vending done after 16:00 on Thursday will only reflect when the City goes online again and the system can accept the batch runs on the prepaid system.”

You also won’t be reconnected

Those who have had their services cut will also not be able to be restored during the weekend.

“Account payments can be made via third-party platforms but ratepayers should note that
payments will only reflect when the system is online again.

“If a customer is disconnected during the downtime, and manages to make a payment during
this period, it will not reflect on the City’s system, which would make a reconnection
impossible.”

Why the shutdown

The city said the downtime is necessary for its internet service provider, the State Information Technology Agency (SITA), to upgrade the electrical infrastructure in its hosting data centre.

“This interruption will also affect the city’s own network and server equipment, which are situated inside the SITA hosting facility. To safeguard the City’s equipment from potential harm, all City of Tshwane-hosted equipment will be turned off in advance.

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Affected services in Tshwane

During this downtime, the following City of Tshwane internet-related services will be interrupted:

• Telephone lines: 012 358 9999 or 080 1111 556
• Internet access
• External email delivery
• City of Tshwane public-hosted websites
• Electricity vending
• All other City of Tshwane solutions that are internet-dependent
• Customer servicing email service
• Enquiries on the city’s social media channels X and Facebook
• No billing enquiries will be handled

“ICT Division management apologises for any inconvenience. Any changes to the downtime will be communicated to all users and stakeholders in advance,” the City of Tshwane said.

Not first time in Tshwane

This is not the first time the City of Tshwane warned of internet service interruption.

In November 2022, the city’s Sita said it required downtime to upgrade its Centurion Data Centre.

During the downtime, consumers couldn’t buy electricity from third-party vendors, banking apps, ATMs, retail shops, garages, spaza shops and cell phones.

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