The City of Tshwane has issued a statement informing prepaid electricity buyers of false information on social media claiming that customers are no longer able to buy electricity.

Messages circulating on various platforms claim that customers are unable to buy prepaid power after third-party vendors were disconnected from the city’s vending system after their contracts had expired.

The City of Tshwane said that “the transition of third-party vendors was seamless”.

The new tender was awarded in December 2023 and the process to disconnect the previous vendors from the vending system platform started in March to make way for the newly appointed service providers to be able to operate from April 1. “Those vendors with large credits on their vending machines were allowed to vend until their credit reached zero. The transition was operational from April 1 but vendors with large credits were permitted to vend until their credit reached zero,” the city said in a statement.

“We want to assure our customers that prepaid electricity sales will not be disrupted. The current service providers have 100% city-wide coverage of prepaid electricity points of sale.”

The municipality experienced a glitch in the third-party vending system in October last year when migrating prepaid meters from one system to another as part of the update.