Some Cape Town residents protest over electricity tariffs, installation of meters
Community leader Paul Phillips said residents have taken to the streets over issues related to electricity tariffs and meters.
A prepaid electricity meter and an electricity mains unit. Picture: @CityofCT/X
CAPE TOWN - Prince George Drive in the Steenberg area has been reopened to traffic.
Officials closed the roadway in both directions earlier on Thursday morning due to a protest.
Speaking to CapeTalk's Lester Kiewit earlier on Thursday, community leader Paul Phillips said residents had taken to the streets over an issue related to electricity tariffs.
"There was a community meeting last night and the community is up in arms over the increased electricity tariffs and also the installation of the new electricity meters which, at an abnormal rate, depletes the units people buy. It has now become unaffordable."
Phillips said there was no public participation ahead of the decision to replace the old meters.
"This was just forced on people and 90% of the new meters that have been installed, if you speak to those residents, they will tell you it's abnormally high usage of units.
"There is something drastically wrong and it has been brought to the attention of the ward councillors, it has been brought to the attention of the city, and there's absolutely no response."
Meanwhile, during an interview on CapeTalk on Thursday, Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis said he wasn't aware of the protest, but the city had, for many years, been replacing old meters one area at a time.
"The price is exactly the same. This is a very common misconception that I get that somehow people think that they are being charged more on the prepaid meter – that is simply not the case.
"All of our tariffs are really transparent and available on our website. We don’t have a post-paid tariff and a prepaid tariff - we have one tariff and that applies to everyone. You are paying exactly the same."