{
  "id": 15543619,
  "title": "Elections 2026: Midlands municipality claws back millions in electricity revenue",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/19/elections-2026-midlands-municipality-claws-back-millions-in",
  "topic": "finance",
  "section": "Finance & Markets",
  "published": "2026-10-19T02:30:00.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "GroundUp",
    "slug": "groundup",
    "url": "https://groundup.org.za/article/elections-2026-midlands-municipality-claws-back-millions-in-electricity-revenue/"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "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.",
  "summary": "uMngeni has installed nearly 1,900 smart meters to curb electricity losses",
  "key_points": [
    "Midlands municipality invests R36 million in smart meters to curb illegal connections",
    "Electricity losses reduced from 60% to 27% in 2025/26 financial year",
    "Underbilling of uMngeni-uThukela Water system results in R25 million debt for project funding"
  ],
  "editors_take": "Replacing manual systems with smart meters shifts the local government from a state of massive revenue loss to a model of fiscal recovery through technological enforcement and debt collection.",
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}