Grace period for non-vending City Power customers
The city temporarily paused penalties for customers whose meter boxes are faulty or have been tampered with, allowing them to be upgraded.
A prepaid electricity meter and an electricity mains unit. Picture: @CityofCT/X
JOHANNESBURG - City Power has welcomed non-vending customers in Johannesburg who have come forward to get their electricity meter boxes replaced or normalised.
The city temporarily paused penalties for customers whose meter boxes are faulty or have been tampered with, allowing them to be upgraded.
South Africans who use prepaid electricity have until Sunday midnight to upgrade their meter boxes.
City Power spokesperson Isaac Mangena said, “The decision to temporarily forego penalties until Sunday, which range from between R14,000 on a single phase to above R30,000 on a three-phase meter, has resulted in more non-vending customers basically coming through to ensure that their meters are replaced or normalised.
"In the past few days, we have received about 368 calls from non-vending customers and so far, we have managed to replace close to 200 meters across all service delivery centres across the City of Johannesburg.”
Mangena said if customers do not take advantage of this grace period and fail to report these meter boxes, they will then be forced to pay penalties.
“We resolved 6 non-vending cases in Alexandra, Midrand, 17, Hursthill, 30, inner city, 16, Lenasia, 29, Randburg, 17, Reuven, 43, and Roodepoort, 38. Additionally, we received 50 calls from non-vending customers in Naturena and we managed to install 50 meters in that area. Failure to take advantage of this grace period before the TID rollover deadline will lead to power supply disconnection. This will then require customers to pay those hefty penalty fees," said Mangena.