{"id":7179,"date":"2015-10-07T07:13:21","date_gmt":"2015-10-07T14:13:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/?p=7179"},"modified":"2015-10-07T07:14:41","modified_gmt":"2015-10-07T14:14:41","slug":"south-africa-take-your-smart-meters-and-shove-em","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/?p=7179","title":{"rendered":"South Africa : \u2018Take your smart meters and shove \u2019em\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Residents petitioning City Power, looking at civil law suit over smart meters.\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/div>\n

\"Passionate<\/p>\n
Passionate community man Caleb Finn says the issue is prevalent in Florida as well. Photo: Mathilde Myburgh.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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City Power might face a civil law suit as residents are sick and tired of so-called \u2018smart\u2019 meters, their defects and resulting billing issues.<\/p>\n

A mob of infuriated residents had representatives from\u00a0City Power<\/span><\/a><\/strong><\/span>\u00a0cornered at a public meeting on smart meters last week.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be to the benefit of us all if you take your smart meters and shove \u2019em,\u201d an elderly resident said after reciting his complaint for the umpteenth time in front of the representatives.<\/p>\n

The meeting was called by Ward 83 councillor Suzanne Clarke after she was inundated with smart meter complaint calls, some from as far as the northern suburbs, she told the\u00a0Record<\/a><\/em>. The issue is so prevalent in Roodepoort and Florida that residents from everywhere attended, even community man Caleb Finn, who sits on the Florida CPF board. Around 100 people attending the meeting had no time for City Power\u2019s explanations or sweet talk. Most complained their accounts have doubled since the meters have been installed on their properties. More and more cases of smart meters being swopped on neighbouring properties have come to light. One resident has apparently racked up a bill of R185 000 with City Power, according to his latest statement.<\/p>\n

Representative Louis Pieterse tried to explain billing issues are due to the billing department being absorbed by the City of Johannesburg\u2019s Revenue department, but residents would have none of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are still a lot of account issues as a result of interface problems,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe recognise there is a problem and even went on a two-day workshop to discuss ways forward.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pieterse also confirmed there\u2019s a charge to having one\u2019s smart meter tested. It costs R500 to test and should it be found the smart meter is not faulty, this is billed to the resident instead of the municipality.<\/p>\n

Residents further alleged the new meters read 10 per cent higher than their actual consumption. There are also complaints that the estimates they\u2019re charged if CoJ failed to get a reading are twice or three times the average consumption.<\/p>\n

\u201cDon\u2019t play games with us! We can take you to court and there will be big trouble,\u201d another resident let himself be heard.<\/p>\n

The issue has escalated to the point where Clarke drew up a petition which was released at the meeting. It reads, \u201cWe the citizens of the City of Johannesburg petition the MMC of Finance, the Revenue Department and City Power to rectify excessive charges on the new smart meters and cease all service cut-off and refrain from calling on us to conclude arrangements of accounts in arrears.\u201d<\/p>\n

Many had signed the petition, which Clarke will hand over to CoJ, by the end of the night but other possible solutions were also discussed. Initiating a civil law suit against the entity prevailed, but other residents said they\u2019ll be happy to have the meters removed or switch to prepaid meters. City Power said they\u2019re willing to hold an open day. Residents have requested legal council at the next public meeting.<\/p>\n

The allegations against City Power and Revenue:<\/p>\n

\u2022 Accounts have doubled since the meters were installed<\/p>\n

\u2022 Smart meters were swapped, installed on neighbours\u2019 properties<\/p>\n

\u2022 Smart meters read 10 per cent more than actual consumption<\/p>\n

\u2022 Residents are charged estimates twice or three times their average consumption<\/p>\n

\u2022 City Power is illegally sticking final notices to perimeter walls instead of serving it to residents<\/p>\n

\u2022 Residents charged R450 per final notice stuck on wall<\/p>\n

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Louis Pieterse addresses residents at Suzanne Clarke’s smart meter public meeting in Roodekrans.<\/div>\n
Photo: Mathilde Myburgh.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Do you perhaps have more information pertaining to this story?<\/strong>\u00a0Email us at\u00a0roodepoortrecord@caxton.co.za<\/a>\u00a0<\/em>(remember to include your contact details) or phone us on 011 955 1130.<\/p>\n

For free daily local\u00a0news on the West Rand, also visit our sister newspaper websites\u00a0<\/strong>Randfontein Herald<\/a>,\u00a0Krugersdorp News<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Get It Joburg West\u00a0Magazine<\/a><\/p>\n

Remember to visit our\u00a0Facebook<\/a>,\u00a0Twitter<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Instagram<\/a>\u00a0pages to let your voice be heard!<\/p>\n

http:\/\/roodepoortrecord.co.za\/2015\/10\/05\/take-your-smart-meters-and-shove-em\/<\/a><\/p>\n

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Planned Outages<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

https:\/\/www.citypower.co.za\/Pages\/Planned-Outages.aspx<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Residents petitioning City Power, looking at civil law suit over smart meters.\u00a0 October 5, 2015 Passionate community man Caleb Finn says the issue is prevalent in Florida as well. Photo: Mathilde Myburgh. City Power might face a civil law suit as residents are sick and tired of so-called \u2018smart\u2019 meters, their defects and resulting billing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[307,306,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7179","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-africa","category-billing","category-smart-meter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=7179"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7179\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7182,"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7179\/revisions\/7182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=7179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=7179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emrabc.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=7179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}