SECUNDA – Residents are unhappy about the new pre-paid electricity meters that Govan Mbeki Municipality installed at residents’ houses last week.
According to residents, they were neither consulted nor informed, and some of them had new smart meters installed only last year.
“Why do we need new meters again and what has happens to the R2 000 we paid for our meters that were installed last year?” asked a resident.
According to Ms Aranda Nel-Buitendag, VF+ councillor, Govan Mbeki Municipality now has a contract for the pre-paid electricity meters with Ideal and thus they have to replace all the meters.
“Even people who did not have pre-paid electricity meters before, are now getting pre-paid electricity meters,” said Ms Nel-Buitendag.
Several opposition parties opposed the decision of the municipality to install new meters because residents were not informed. According to Ms Nel-Buitendag, this project has now been put on hold.
The municipality left information pamphlets where they installed the new meters with instructions on how residents should go about buying electricity and also a number they can call if they need help.
Municipal workers installing the new meters had letters with them when they arrived at the houses.
The letters stated that the municipality is installing new meters and that the particular employee has the permission to install a new meter at a particular house.
She received complaints from residents claiming that the people who are installing the meters do not know what they are doing as one of the residents where the municipality installed one of these meters, is an electrician and he said the way that municipal workers installed his meter did not look right.
Another resident’s gate and garage door would not open after municipal workers installed his electricity meter.
Ms Mariaan Chamberlain, DA councillor, informed residents via social media that she is waiting for feedback from the Mkhondo Municipality regarding the Ideal pre-paid electricity meters.
According to her the same meters were installed by the same company in the Mkhondo municipal area and it did not end well. She said should workers show up at residents’ houses to install the new meters, residents should not allow them to remove the old pre-paid meters or the conventional meters.
“There are a lot of problems in areas in Secunda where these meters were installed,” said Ms Chamberlain.
“The issue of the meters that were already installed, will be addressed in due course.”
The Ridge Times asked Messrs Benzi Soko, Lucky Mhlongo and Donald Green from Govan Mbeki Municipality’s communications department for comment on this issue and although they received the e-mails and WhatsApp messages, neither of them responded or acknowledged receipt.
