Eskom Confirms No Prepaid Electricity Meter Lockouts Amid Fake News Reports

Eskom has confirmed that widespread claims about prepaid electricity meter lockouts in South Africa are false. The power utility dismissed these reports as fake news, stating that no prepaid meters are being locked out.

The misleading claims originated from online publications that appear to use artificial intelligence to generate false stories. Many of these articles are published under suspicious author names such as Yuvaan Barman and Priya Sachdeva—both likely fabricated.

Some of the latest fabricated reports allege that Eskom plans to disable prepaid meters if customers fail to perform “periodic updates.” These so-called updates are falsely described as critical to the electricity supply system.

Eskom Issues Official Warning About Disinformation

In response, the electricity company issued an alert to reassure South Africans that no prepaid meter lockouts are taking place.

“Eskom wishes to warn the public about the increasing number of fake news sites that contain misleading information,” the utility said.

“Recent disinformation warns of impending prepaid electricity meter lockouts. Eskom would like to confirm that this is fake news and that there are no meter lockouts.”

Eskom emphasised that misinformation only fuels unnecessary panic and urged consumers to rely on official Eskom channels and other legitimate sources for accurate updates on prepaid electricity services.

The Truth About Eskom’s Prepaid Meter Updates

While Eskom and municipal power providers are indeed working on a prepaid meter update project, the process has nothing to do with lockouts. The initiative began last year to ensure that South Africans could continue using their prepaid meters without disruptions.

A total of 11 million prepaid meters across the country need to be updated with the Key Revision Number version 2 (KRN 2) software in 2024. This update is required due to a built-in security mechanism called the Token Identifier (TID), which ran out of range on 24 November 2024 at 20:15.

YOU MAY ALSO LIKE: Google Fined $36 Million In Australia Over Anticompetitive Search Deal

The recoding ensures that customers can continue purchasing and loading electricity tokens on their meters seamlessly.

---

For More Tech News, Follow SurgeZirc SA On Facebook,  X and Instagram