Elections 2026: Midlands municipality claws back millions in electricity revenue
uMngeni has installed nearly 1,900 smart meters to curb electricity losses
The uMngeni Local Municipality in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands has recently invested millions to install smart meters in homes to tackle illegal connections and meter tampering. This initiative, which has already raised millions in revenue, has reduced illegal connections and electricity losses significantly. Mayor Christopher Pappas told GroundUp that the program has cut electricity losses from over 60% of total electricity purchased from Eskom to just 27% for the 2025/26 financial year.
However, not all residents have been satisfied with the rollout, as some residents have complained that electricity costs are too high. The municipality has spent R36 million to complete the project, and it plans to use reallocated budgets and recovered funds from the uMngeni-uThukela Water (UT) system. Despite being denied funding by the National Treasury, the municipality plans to pursue purposeful defaulting to qualify for the programme.
Meanwhile, the municipality has discovered it had been underbilling UT for electricity for its Mpophomeni treatment plant for almost two decades, resulting in a R25 million debt. This debt will be used to fund the smart meter rollout.
Written by urgent.news from GroundUp's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
