Govan Mbeki Municipality has suspended its policy of demanding a 30% payment on historic debt to unblock prepaid electricity meters until the end of October.
Executive Mayor Nhlakanipho Zuma announced this decision at the monthly council meeting on August 29.
Zuma said the municipality will be running a public participation programme through the office of the speaker together with the department’s finance and budget to inform communities to pay their accounts.
“When I was addressing the community of eMzinoni recently I noticed there was a lack of consultation with our communities. Municipal manager, I warn you and your officials to implement these decisions and not to do something else,” said Zuma.
Zuma said the issue of rolling out smart meters doesn’t only focus on revenue collection, but also to ensure that residents can buy electricity beyond November 24.
ALSO READ: Fire rages at Standerton Golf Club
“Any old electricity meters will not be able to work come November 24. That is why all households across the municipality should have smart meters.”
Zuma said all municipalities in the country are compelled to install smart meters for their customers.
“This is why GMM asked the National Treasury to intervene with funds to install meters in every household,” said Zuma.
He said the national treasury has since appointed certain service providers to assist municipalities across the country with smart meters.
“It seems that those service providers have a problem because they have not yet started even though the treasury had already given them R2b to implement the programme.”
