As D-day looms for prepaid electricity meters, Eskom, municipalities have tackled just under half

Eskom and municipalities have updated nearly half of the prepaid electricity meters in the country, with a little over 250 days left before they all stop working owing to a date-rollover issue baked into the code of every meter.

In a statement issued on Friday, Eskom said that the utility had successfully updated 3 million out of the 6.8 million prepaid electricity meters it is responsible for. Eskom knew that the update was needed for at least 10 years.

Roughly 2.2 million of the 4.6 million prepaid electricity meters in municipal distribution areas have already been rolled over, according to a dashboard created by the South African Local Government Association (SALGA) to track the progress of municipalities.