R1,600 for 0 units in South Africa’s richest city – MyBroadband

The City of Johannesburg is forcing its residents to remain on or convert to expensive postpaid electricity accounts after years of migrating most households to prepaid meters.

Johannesburg’s electricity utility, City Power, first announced in September 2025 that it would pause its smart meter conversion programme due to “discrepancies in some accounts.”

The suspension was initially intended to last until 1 November 2025 to allow the utility to investigate the matter.

A few days after that date, City Power announced it had identified 2,318 “non-vending” prepaid customers that would be converted to postpaid by 31 December 2025.

Non-vending is a euphemism for households and businesses suspected of stealing electricity, either through bypassing the meter or buying illegal tokens from ghost vendors.

City Power stated that the targeted meters were not being loaded with electricity tokens in accordance with the city’s bylaws, often due to bypassing or other irregularities.

This was followed by another statement in January 2025, in which City Power announced that homes with rooftop solar installations currently on prepaid meters must convert to postpaid billing.

“This measure will ensure accurate accounting of electricity imports and exports, improve network management, and align solar PV customers with the appropriate billing framework,” the city said.

It gave “non-vending” customers until 30 June 2026 to come forward and “regularise” their accounts by converting to postpaid.

Johannesburg’s small-scale embedded generator (SSEG) policy has required that these users be on the postpaid tariff with a bidirectional meter for some time.

However, residents have hesitated to register due to the city’s excessive postpaid fixed charges and concerns that it would use their data to impose punitive charges against self-generators.

The city charges postpaid customers R1,623 in fixed service and network charges, regardless of energy usage.

It charged no fixed monthly fees on prepaid for many years, which encouraged many households to switch to the newer system.

After many years of failed attempts to introduce a prepaid fixed charge, which residents and civil society strongly resisted, it also imposed a R230 fee on these customers from July 2024.

Tariffs out of step with Eskom and other metros

The city has justified the 7-times-greater postpaid tariff as necessary to cover the costs of administering these customers’ accounts, including verifying usage and inspecting meters for tampering.

While some municipalities apply the same principle to prepaid and postpaid charges, the difference in City Power’s fixed charges is orders of magnitude greater.

Eskom Direct and the three other largest metros — Cape Town, Ethekwini, and Tshwane — do not treat prepaid and postpaid customers differently for fixed electricity charges.

The second-highest postpaid fixed monthly fee among large municipalities is R865 in KuGompo (formerly East London). However, that is still less than twice its fixed prepaid charge of R490 per month.

The table below compares the fixed monthly charges on the most common prepaid and postpaid tariff plans for residential users in Eskom and nine metros or large municipalities.

Postpaid conversion expanded?

The Democratic Alliance has condemned the city’s migration for causing panic among prepaid users and regards the strategy as an “attack” on solar power users.

“This amounts to a power grab by City Power against residents who invested in solar due to the ANC/EFF/PA coalition’s failure to provide reliable electricity,” the DA said.

“While the DA supports efforts to reduce revenue losses and curb illegal connections, there is no justification for targeting compliant solar users.”

The DA has called on City Power to clarify whether the extension of the deadline for voluntary conversion applies only to non-vending prepaid customers or whether the project’s scope has been expanded.

A Johannesburg resident recently contacted MyBroadband and alleged that the city was not allowing any postpaid residents to convert to prepaid meters, regardless of whether they had a solar power system.

MyBroadband asked the City of Johannesburg and City Power for more details about who is required to convert to the postpaid tariff, but did not receive feedback by the time of publication.

The Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse has recommended that rooftop solar users with systems below 100kWp delay registration for the time being.

It is particularly concerned with Eskom and certain municipalities forcing SSEG users to move to specific tariff structures as a way to protect their revenues.

People in the solar power community have recommended that those who make minimal use of grid electricity buy at least a few units every month to avoid scrutiny by municipalities.