South Africa: Long Queues As Eskom Meter Upgrade Deadline Approaches

After 24 November old meters will no longer load electricity tokens

Elderly pensioners wrapped in blankets sit on the cold pavement outside Eskom’s Louis Trichardt offices. They have come to upgrade their electricity meters before the 24 November deadline. After that date, meters that have not been upgraded will no longer accept electricity tokens.

On Thursday morning GroundUp found more than 170 customers queuing. Some said they had to return more than once. Basic facilities are lacking. Two elderly women were seen urinating against the office’s concrete walls due to the lack of toilets.

Annah Manganye, 68, from Valdezia, 40km away, arrived at 6:30am and was 172nd in line. “If I don’t get served today, I won’t come back because I don’t have transport money,” she said.

The office, which serves residents from surrounding villages, including Elim, Valdenzhia and Kutama Sinthumule, has three staff members. Eskom manager Netshavheni Nenguda said, “When we started this programme last year, most customers didn’t visit to upgrade their meters. Now with the cutoff date approaching, the numbers are increasing.”

He said the office was committed to serving everyone in the queue the same day.

Patric Sikhtshi, chairperson of the Zoutpansberg Community Development Forum, has called for an extension of the deadline. “The process is very slow, and not many customers are served per day,” he said.

But Eskom’s website says there will be no extension.

To upgrade there should be no need to go to Eskom offices. But customers appear to be struggling.

Eskom customers should first check their meter’s status by entering a code. If an upgrade is needed, they must obtain Key Change Tokens from vendors and follow a three-step process to enter the new codes.

In response to the issues with the new electricity meter system, Eskom referred GroundUp to its website that explained the process (see below).

Nenguda advised customers to carefully follow the instructions when entering their token numbers.

“Customers should always begin with the set of numbers labeled as number 1. This is not necessarily the top set of numbers on the slip, so they need to check the labels carefully. Once entered in the correct order, the electricity should load automatically,” he explained.

In order to check whether your meter has been recoded/upgraded to KRN2 (Key Revision Number) or is still on KRN1, please enter the code 1844 6744 0738 4377 2416 on your prepaid meter’s keypad. The screen will display either the number 1 or 2, and in some cases, there may also be alphabetic letters alongside the KRN number.

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Number 1 means your meter is still on KRN1 and needs to be recoded/upgraded to KRN2.

Next step is to get the Key Change Tokens from any Eskom-approved local or online vendor. Look for vendors that usually sell prepaid electricity tokens – they are likely to have the Key Change Tokens as well.

Follow the steps provided:

Step 1 – Key in the first 20 digits of your recode token and wait for it to be accepted (this ticket is marked Number 1).

Step 2 – Key in the second 20 digits of your recode token and wait for it to be be accepted (this ticket is marked Number 2).

Step 3 – Key in the 20 digits of your purchased token to recharge your meter.

GroundUp is experimenting with AI Claude 3.5 Sonnet in the editing of articles.

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