Two Kosmospark residents were without electricity for two weeks after the Lekwa Municipality disconnected it, saying they tampered with the smart meters.
According to Messrs Lazarus Kau and Cedric Plaatjies, the municipality said they must both pay a fine of R8 000 before they could be reconnected.
When the smart meters were introduced to Lekwa residents, the municipality said one of the benefits of using it is that it can not be tampered with.
The municipality was adamant that the smart meters were the answer to illegal connections and electricity bridging.
According to them, a smart meter is like any other meter which accounts for moving the meters away from the customers to the pillar boxes on the street to reduce the possibility of tampering.
“The ‘smart’ thing about the meters is that it can store all the events and alert the office or control centre,” Ms Thando Nkosi, Lekwa communications officer, said.
According to her, the meter has a tamper function, if a terminal cover of the meter is open, the meter will send a tamper alarm to the control centre to alert the municipality.
“Both meters were tampered with and technicians sent out to investigate and photos taken that confirmed that the meters were tampered with,” she said.
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