'High risk' that millions of prepaid electricity meters will go dark this year

A prepaid electricity crisis is looming in November. There is a high risk that many South African authorities are acting too late to avoid it.

On 24 November, all STS-approved prepaid electricity meters that have not been updated will stop working owing to a date rollover problem baked into the code of the meters.

This means that users can no longer load electricity onto their meters beyond that date unless their meter is updated.