Beware Of Street Smart Meter Impersonations
The City of Tshwane would like to caution its customers to beware of criminals masquerading as electricity smart prepaid meter installers.
City Spokesperson, Mr Blessing Manala said it has come to the attention of the City that some group of men have been going around suburbs, particularly in the east of the city, robbing customers while posing as smart prepaid meter contractors.
He said the City has embarked on the rollout of the electricity smart prepaid meters as part of its Security of Revenue Project, which aims to replace all conventional meters with the smart prepaid one.
The modus operandi of the criminals is to visit residential areas where the rollout of the smart meters is taking place and produce fake “proof” that they work for the City of Tshwane, and once they gain access to the property, they then rob the customers.
Customers are advised to note that all meter installation activity for residential customers is conducted on the street and no access is required to the customer’s house or boundary area.
Where a meter is within the customer’s boundary or inside the house, the City of Tshwane will make arrangements to relocate the meter into a street side enclosure.
“In future, on the day of the switch, after a successful installation of the smart meter, we will send contractors to each property to install the Customer Interface Unit, but this will not happen until April/May this year, and a separate process will be put in place to advise customers of this activity,” Mr Manala said.
The genuine and legitimate installers are identifiable by an ID card which has their name, photo and SA Identity Document number printed on it and all vehicles have magnetic contractor badges attached to them.
The installers work from 7am to 6pm, Monday to Saturday, and in the event of a technical issue, like a power outage, they will work until power has been restored. However, no access to the customer property is required, even under those circumstances.
When in doubt, customers are urged to call the Total Utility Management Services (TUMS) Call Centre on 012 943 9950 to confirm the identity of the installer or to call the police.
Tshwane News Services
