Ladysmith KZN: Prepaid water meters put on hold
This project includes the changing of the old meters to the latest technology and the audit of the water meters in the district.
The Water smart meter rollout has been temporarily halted after a mutual agreement was reached in a meeting between the Uthukela District Municipality and stakeholders from the Ladysmith Chamber of Commerce and Alfred Duma Ratepayers Association today.
Stakeholders raised concerns that although they were not against the installation of smart meters, but the main issue was consultation, which, as they said, was not properly conducted.
Addressing the meeting, Ms Jennifer Wallace from the Ladysmith Chamber of Commerce expressed her concerns about the lack of proper consultation from the side of the municipality. She made it clear that as business forum they were not opposing the rollout of new smart meters, but said they should have been consulted first.
Administrator, Mr B Nkontwana, Acting CFO, Mr B Sithole and Deputy Water Manager, Mr G Singh conceded to the fact that consultation was only limited to a certain number of people hence stakeholders’ concerns were somehow justifiable.
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The Uthukela District Municipality also made commitments to start with the process of district-wide consultations as from next week to make sure everyone gets on board.
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