June 22, 2004
By Lucky Sindane
THE City of Johannesburg has some good news for its electricity consumers: they can convert to prepaid meters or keep using the conventional ones.
The City has settled its policy on conversion to a prepaid system and will allow consumers to choose the kind of service they want.
City Power, Johannesburg's electricity company, supplies 278 000 customers - 45 000 of whom use prepaid meters.
"The number of our customers in suburbs with requests to be converted to prepaid meters has been growing and even if it's one person we will do it," says Silus Zimu, City Power's vice president of customer services.
The national supplier, Eskom, has 600 000 customers, 300 000 of whom use prepaid meters.
Consumers can decide to pay for their electricity in advance or can keep being billed at the end of the month.
The prepaid meters allow consumers to check how much electricity they have left. Such customers will not receive bills at the end of the month.
Everyone will still receive 50kW of free electricity a month.
However, consumers will be charged a fee of R701,75 to switch to a prepaid meter.
"If a customer wants to convert from a conventional meter to a prepaid meter they should put their request in writing," says Zimu. Consumers should also clear all arrears with the City's revenue management unit, he says.
"The system has already been rolled out in Alexandra and Lawley. The biggest challenge that we are faced with is the vending system where people will buy their electricity. We cannot put a vending system in the area where one customer has requested a prepaid meter.
"For us to put a vending system we need to have a minimum of 2 500 customers," says Zimu.
Customers who request a conversion will be shown how to use the prepaid meter, how many units they should buy for the appliances they have, how the prepaid meter works, the differences between the prepaid and the conventional meter, the advantages and the disadvantages of each and what to do in the case of a problem.
To apply for a conversion to a prepaid meter, put your request in writing and send it to Zani Nkosi, City Power customer services, P O Box 38766, Booysens, 2016.
For more information contact City Power at 011 375 5555 or e-mail the customer care department customerservice@citypower.co.za
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