Prepaid meters help stop non-payment of bills

depressing.
With load-shedding in some areas seeming to be getting worse by the day and electricity bills continuing to rise, only a prepaid system can protect the consumer.
Those on fixed monthly bills seem to be the worst affected as the power utility has repeatedly rejected calls to bill them on a pro-rata system based on the hours they get electricity in any given month.
This paper receives smses and letters almost on a daily basis bearing complaints from Zesa customers who only get power for a few hours in the middle of the night all week and yet receive huge bills at the end of the month.
On the other hand, the firm is also citing huge amounts that it is owed by various consumers as the biggest challenge to its own viability and any hope of improved service delivery.
Secretary for Energy and Power Development Mr Justin Mupamhanga told the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Mines and Energy that Zesa is owed around US$400 million by consumers.
But questions have been raised on the veracity of the amount due to Zesa as on previous occasions the utility company has admitted that its current billing system is not perfect. It is, therefore, a catch-22 situation which a prepaid billing system would solve in one stroke.
Consumers would have to limit their consumption to what they can afford while Zesa would only receive payment for actual service rendered. This would also hopefully eradicate the complications arising in the case of some resettlement areas where Zesa is failing to establish the responsible person to bill resulting in some farmers accessing electricity for no payment at the expense of the rest of the consumers.
With a prepaid system all such people would have to organise themselves to buy their power or go without the utility. But the system that has rightly been rejected by Zesa holdings would have brought no relief to the country’s citizens.
In effect, it simply meant that instead of the utility company selling power directly to the people, a third party would have come in to cream off a commission thereby raising the tariffs even higher.
Such a system is causing a problem in South Africa where the consumers are rejecting the prepaid meter system as they buy their electricity from a third party and not directly from Eskom.
Because of the premiums charged by the third party those on the prepaid meter system pay more than people who use the post-usage billing system and this is the last thing that we want or need in this country.
The focus for Zesa should be to provide affordable electricity to all citizens and not create a platform for self-aggrandisement for a few individuals at the expense of the majority.
It is a wise decision therefore for the power company to buy meters in what will be a one off expense and not recurrent expenditure which inflates costs for no discernible practical advantage.
But having applauded the noble move by the responsible decision makers to protect the consumer, we feel that it is important to urge the State Procurement Board (SPB) to expedite the awarding of the tender to those prepared to offer a fair deal.
According to Mr Mupamhanga’s presentation in parliament those players have already been identified and only the approval of the SPB is needed to get the programme underway.
As those players are bidders whose proposals have already been reviewed in the tender process there is no reason for the SPB to delay the process. What is important is to ensure that the whole process is done in a manner that is beyond reproach so that we do not have fresh derailments caused by allegations of corruption.
It is also hoped that the 13 licenced independent power producers with their potential to produce 4 500 megawatts in addition to Zesa’s current 1 400 will add something to the national grid soon.
Then, the country can progress from load shedding to being a real regional powerhouse capable of supplying our neighbours with energy while earning some much-needed foreign currency while hopefully reducing the price for the local consumer.